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"DAVID'S" RETURN TO CAMP. 



NATURAL HISTORY 



OP 



Western Wild Animals 



AND GUIDE FOR 

HUNTERS, TRAPPERS, AND SPORTSMEN; 

EMBRACING 

Observations on the Art of Hunting and Trapping, a description 
of the physical structure, homes, and habits of Fur-hearing 
Animals and others of Worth America, with general 
and specific rules for their capture; also, nar- 
ratives of personal adventure. 

By 

DAVID W. CARTWRIGHT. 



i) 




1 



^ 



^ 



WRITTEN BY 

MAEY F. BAILEY, A. M. 



TOLEDO, OHIO: 

BLADE PRINTING & PAPER COMPANY. 

1875. 




^\ 






Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1875, 

BY D. W. CAKTWRIGIIT AND M. F. IJATI.EY, 

In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 



/ / ^ ^ 



Many Worthy and Companionable M. 

WITH WHOM I HAVE 

HUNTED AND TRAVELED 

THE FOLLOWING PAGES ARETNSCKIBED BY 

, "DAVID." ""^ 



EN 



PREFACE 



For the past ten years Mr. Cartwright has been occa- 
sionally asked to put into book form something of his 
observations of the habits of many annuals, of his knowl- 
edge of woodcraft, and some account of his life as a 
woodsman. He has been for several years engaged a 
considerable portion of his time, during the sporting 
seasons, in acting as guide for parties of pleasure seekers. 
Some of these sportsmen have also asked him to put into 
readable shape some of his travels in the out~door world. 

He is not a professed scientist, nor does he claim to be 
in possession of the practiced use of the vocabularies of 
conventional technicalities; but his knowledge of the 
wild animals of this country is the practical knowledge 
of their homes and their habits, and the frequent personal 
scrutiny of their physical structure, which the naturalist 
needs and desires for the successful pursuance of his 
studies, and without something of which his knowledge 
is as a dictionary full of meaningless words. 

He is also not a professional book maker, and he knows 
that it is only by practice that there comes any great 
degree of perfection in any art or trade. What he gives 
you, he puts upon the basis of an experience of forty 
years, and gives it with that assurance that he believes 



vi PREFACE. 

should come of practical knowledge, as opposed to any 
hypothetical and visionary trash. As to the matter of the 
subjects herein set forth, his endeavor h to meet the 
requests of his friends, believing that he understands 
them. As to the manner of their presentation, referring 
more specially to thj narrative portions of the book, his 
design is to embody the truth in its deserved credibility. 
He has personally but little interest in works of fiction , 
and less sympathy for the story-teller as such. He would, 
therefore, be foolish to desire to present the many incre- 
dulities of travel and adventure, as is often done, even if 
it were not also true that in such an effort he would be 
like a man in deep water, who could find no way of escape. 
Therefore, 

, Though this work be ragged, 

" Tattered and jagged, 
Rudely rain-beaten. 
Rusty, moth-eaten ; 
If ye take well therewith. 
It hath in it some pith.'' 

In the course of his life as a hunter, he has come in 
contact with many inexperienced, and many unsuccessful 
v/oodsmen. He hopes to benefit that class of readers, 
by placing within their reach rules that he has in every 
case thoroughly tested. 

Since the author of this book claims for himself an 
incompetency to the task of putting it into shape, and 
the more exact wording of its pages, and has placed that 
part of the work into the hands of another, it is due to 
him to say that he labors under difficulties in presenting 
this book to the public. There is of necessity in many 



PREFACE. vii 

places a lack of that clearness of ideas, and of that sym- 
pathy that can come only from one actually experienced 
in such a knowledge and such a life as it is now the effort 
to make known. 

Two of the articles, '* The Speckled Trout," and 
"A Trip to Lake Superior," w^ere furnislied by 
friends of Mr. Cartwright. With these exceptions, 
the work has been done by means of notes taken 
by me at the dictation of the author. In filling out the 
description of the animals, " The American Cyclopedia," 
" Chambers' Encyclopedia," an English " Museum of 
Animated Nature," and '' The American Beaver," by 
Lewis H. Morgan, have been used as references. All 
other books thus used are acknowledged in their respec- 
tive places of reference. \¥hen tlie notes were filled out 
tney were subjected to Mr. Cartwright for revision, and 
stand as in the print by his authority. Some of the illustra- 
tions he has secured from the publishers of Wood's Mam- 
malia ; all others have been prepared expressly for this 
work. 

It is Hkewise due to the writer of these pages that it be 
said that there are difficulties lying in her way which 
must be faced, but cannot be overcome. It is as if you 
were obliged to tell for othefs what they know and feel, 
and say it as well as if you knew and felt it for yourself, 
and yet you do not. 

One man could write books, if he knew how to write 
them ; another could make books if he had something of 
which to make them. M. F. B. 

Milton, Wis., Oct., 1875. 



CONTENTS 



IPJ^^T I 



THE HUNTER'S ART AND HIS GAME. 



Chapter. 




• Page 


I. 


Hunting as a Business 


3 


II. 


Useful Hints on Woodcraft 


8 


III. 


The Deer . . . 


12 


IV. 


The Antelope .... 


. 39 


V. 


The Rocky Mountain Goat 


41 


VI. 


The American Bison 


. 43 


VII. 


The Prairie-Doct . . . . 


45 


VIII. 


The Woodciiuck 


. 47 


IX. 


The Weasel Family 


49 




The Pine Marten . 


. 49 




The Mink . . . . 


52 




The Fisher 


. 54 




The Badger 


56 




The Otter 


. 58 


X. 


The Skunk 


63 


XL 


The Wolverine .... 


. 65 


XII. 


The Bear Family . . . . 


68 




The Black Bear 


. 71 




The Grizzly Bear 


75 




The Raccoon . 


. 78 


XIII. 


Felid^e, or Cat Tribe 


80 




The Canada Lynx . 


. 82 




The Bay Lynx . . ' . 


85 




The Cougar 


. 86 


XIV. 


The Fox 


89 


XV. 


The Wolf . . . . 


. 96 



X CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER PAGE 

XVI. The Opossum 100 

XVII. The Muskrat 104 

XVIII. The Beaver 109 

XIX. Speckled Trout ..... 134 



ip^iEea: ii. 



NARRATIVES OF PERSONAL ADVENTURE. 

I. My First Fox Hunt .... 141 

II. My First Bear Hunt 143 

III. Hunting in Allegany Co., N. Y. . . 146 

IV. An Adventure with a Wolf . . . 155 
V. Hunting in Jefferson Co., Wis. . . 158 

VI. A Tramp to California in 1852 . . .165 

VII. Hunting Trips in N. W. Wis. and in Minn. 235 

A Trip in N. W. Wis. . . .235 

In the Chippewa Regions in Wis. 238 

In the Woods in K W. Wis. . 240 

About Eau Claire . . . 241 

, In Eau Claire and Dallas Counties 246 

Trapping in Minn. ... 248 

In the Cottonwood Country . . 253 

An Encounter with an Eagle . 254 

VIII. A Trip to Lake Superior . . . .256 

IX. Trapping in the Lake Superior Regions 271 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 







Opposite Page 


I. 


Frontispiece .... 




II. 


Virginian Deer .... 


. 17 


III. 


Elk or Moose ..... 


36 


IV. 


Wapita or Elk .... 


. 37 


V. 


Wish-ton-wish or Prairte-Dog . 


45 


VI. 


Pine Marten 


. 49 


VII. 


Mink .... . . 


52 


VIII. 


Fisher ...... 


. 54 


TX 


Badger ...... 


56 


X. 


Black Bear 


. 71 


XI. 


Log-Trap for Bears .... 


75 


XII. 


Canada Lynx .... 


. 83 


XIII. 


Wildcat 


85 


XIV. 


Cougar 


. 86 


XV. 


Red Fox .... 


92 


XVI. 


Virginian Opossum 


. 100 


XVII, 


Musquash or Muskrat 


104 


SVIII. 


American Beaver 


. 109 


XIX. 


Trout Fishing Scene 


134 



PART I. 

THE IDKfER'S AIT AND HIS GAMS, 



I. 

HUNTING AS A BUSINESS. 



Before attempting any description of the various meth- 
ods of capturing different animals, I wish to make some 
statements relative to hunting and trapping as a business. 
A vast number of people count the hunter's and trapper's 
occupation as dishonorable, fit only for roughs and idlers. 
The business, as a business, is not dishonorable. It can- 
not be unless it is dishonorable for one to buy, sell, or use 
for wearing apparel, or for any mechanical purpose, or 
for the food markets the furs and pelts of animals, the 
skins, bones, horns, hoofs, and sinews, and the palatable 
flesh of many of those same animals. As a point of fact, 
however, it is probably true that the odium which is cast 
upon the business, as such, comes from the general un- 
derstanding of the people relative to the character of a 
hunter as a hunter. 

The man who earns his living by his rifle and his steel 
trap, and who supplies the demands of the various mar- 
kets, must of necessity work far back from the thickly 
settled portions of the country. The communications 
between him and his buyers is such that he spends but a 
small portion of his time in the so-called civilized world. 
There are comparatively few people who become per- 
sonally acquainted with this wild man of the woods. 
There are in by far too many communities men who neg- 
lect their families and their business to hunt and fish. 



4 WESTERN WILD ANIMALS. 

who care less for their homes than their hunts, their fish 
than their fun. There are also men in almost every town 
who frequently spend one day or several days in hunting 
and fishing, but who do it professedly for the fun. They 
return to their homes tired, and generally crippled in some 
way. They have hunted so near the homes of some of 
their neighbors that they generally find but little game, 
and, as a rule, have used more ammunition than their game 
would be worth in market. It is not, therefore, strange, 
owing to the easy way in which we dispose of so many 
questions which do not intimately concern us, that 
people, looking upon the two classes of hunters just 
referred to, count the real hunter unprincipled, as is the 
former class, and unsuccessful as is the latter. The 
hunter and trapper need not be a rough or an idler, and, 
indeed, if he is a successful business man he cannot be 
either. The rugged constitution necessitated by the 
exposures and hardships of such a life as his is the only 
sort of roughness which is in any way demanded by the 
business. A skillful hunter will find, in any gamy 
country, enough to do to keep himself busy. 

Hunters are not without honor. There are rules of 
honor which hunters, as a class, consider themselves 
bound to respect, and which I have never known any one 
of them to violate. Respecting the right of territory 
trappers have long since decided that the first man upon 
a certain ground had a right to that ground so long as he 
should choose to hold it. If a trapper finds certain 
ground occupied, as he can determine by traps set, or by 
occupied camps, he leaves it. If, in going the rounds of 
his traps, a trapper finds that another man has set traps 
upon his ground he hangs them up, and passes on. When 
the man who has set those traps finds them thus removed, 



HUNTING AS A BUSINESS. 5 

he at once understands that he is upon occupied ground. 
There are no territorial rights amongst hunters ; but, if a 
hunter has started up game and it runs upon parties who 
maybe hunting close by, and they find it coming to them 
already wounded, they may kill it and take one half of 
the meat, but the other half of it, and the whole of the 
hide belongs to the man who first shot it. He may follow 
up his wounded creature ; but, if he finds it in the hands 
of a second party, he cannot and does not claim^ the 
whole of the flesh. 

Does it pay to hunt } Yes. It can be made to pay 
well. It would not pay to spoil the good blacksmith to 
make a poor hunter; but, given a man of strength, of 
physical powers, courage, endurance, a close observation 
of the habits of the animals hunted, skill in the methods 
used for their capture, ability to live in the woods without 
getting lost, a good trapping and camping outfit, and 
with all these a liking for the business, and the result is 
monetary success. For the frontiersman, thus qualified, it 
is emphatically money in the pocket. There is every 
year a portion of the time when his farm work does not 
keep him busy. By proper management he can then earn 
several times as much as if he were to hire out by the day 
to do any ordinary kind of work. Speaking from expe- 
rience, I believe that I can safely say that during those 
years when I lived upoi: a frontier home, I earned five 
dollars per day for every day that I hunted, which was 
certainly more than any neighbor of mine could pay me 
for working for him, even if he had had work to be done, 
and was every time five dollars more than I could have 
received for doing little or nothing upon my own place. 
It is also an advantage to a frontier settler to have a good 
knowledge of hunting and trapping, as he can thereby 



6 WESTERN WILD ANIMALS. 

increase the bounty of his board, even if he never traffics 
in skins or flesh of wild animals. He also hastens the 
more civilized condition of his home surroundings, by 
thinning the ranks of the wild creatures about him. 

A great many of the hunters are jolly, genial, free- 
hearted men, and when they have come out of the woods, 
they gratify their generosity, and their fun-loving pro- 
pensities by quickly spending all they have just earned, 
and are thereby forced to go back again into the woods. 
I would advise any young man who cannot find other em- 
ployment, to go into the woods, and if he does not know 
how to hunt, to learn, rather than being out of business, 
to lounge about the loafer's resorts, and thus become a 
nuisance to a community and a bore to himself 1 would 
not for any other reason advise one who is not specially 
adapted to the work, to attempt to follow it as a business. 
It is such a man's fault more than any other one's that 
every hunter must bear the reproaches so generally laid 
upon him. 

I could never advise an intemperate man to become a 
hunter. Alcoholic spirits are not necessary to ensure 
safety against the exposures of life in the woods. A vig- 
orous constitution which has never been damaged by the 
fitful fires of alcohol will of itself preserve an even 
temperature of healthy blood and spirits. The hand and 
the judgment of a drinker are unreliable, and thus unfit 
him for such work. The use of tobacco is no less than 
suicidal to every attempt at successful hunting and trap- 
ping. If one could catch game by driving it from him^ 
no better scent could be used than that of tobacco. Know- 
ing, as who does not, that the whole brute creation abom- 
inates the scent of tobacco, it is a mockery of all honest 
pretensions for a man to claim that he reaps the full 



HUNTING AS A BUSINESS. 7 

benefit of his hard hunter's toil while he habituates him- 
self to the use of tobacco by any means whatever. If he 
does not believe this, it must be because he has never 
made a fair trial of hunting with no tobacco about him. 
I have in a few cases been upon hunting grounds with 
men otherwise well adapted to the work, but who, by 
their tobacco-using habits have greatly reduced the suc- 
cess of the trip, and I have been obliged to abandon a 
field because some one of the company would persist in 
using tobacco. 



WESTERN WILD ANIMALS, 



II. 
USEFUL HINTS ON WOODCRAFT. 



A trap shoald always be set with one end pointing 
towards the probable approach of the animal for whose 
capture it is intended. If a trap is set in a hole, one 
spring should be in the hole, the other out of it; other- 
wise the jaw will be very likely to throw the leg out of 
the trap as the trap springs. 

Nevei' put bait on the pan of a trap. The bait should 
always be put either above or beyond the trap; its posi- 
tion is to be determined by the kind of game for which it is 
set. Scarcely any animal can be caught by the nose, as 
it should be if the pan were the place for the bait; 
scarcely any animal would be caught by the nose if it 
could be ; for the attention of the animal would be 
directed towards the trap. The design is that the animal 
should step upon the trap while trying to secure its bait, 
and if the trap is not baited and is concealed, no atten- 
tion is drawn towards it. The animal then knows 
nothing of the trap until it is sprung. 

It is always better to cover a trap when set, if it can 
be done, even for animals of aquatic habits. When a 
trap is set in water for a coon it does not need to be con- 
cealed ; otherwise the rule holds good. I\Jud, or sand, 
or a light covering of earth, grasses, or leaves, or small 
twigs, or other light stuff that may be easily picked up 
are the materials used for concealing traps. 



USEFUL HINTS ON WOODCJIAFT. 9 

For capturing heavy animals a clog or weight should 
be used. I would, however, except the deer ; for they 
will not go off far carrying a trap with them, and they 
are apt to bruise themselves worse if the trap is clogged. 
The clog is usually a pole, over the larger end of which 
the ring of the trap-chain is slipped and then fastened 
by a wedge. 

A spring-pole is a pole so fixed as to spring when dis- 
placed by the motions of an animal in its attempts to 
extricate itself from a trap, and to fling the animal into 
the air, and there holding it to keep it safe from the 
clutches of any beast of prey, until the trapper shall 
secure his game. 

The sliding-pole is used to secure aquatic animals 
from molestation, by drowning them as soon as the trap 
springs upon them. As soon as an aquatic, or an am- 
phibious animal is caught in a trap it plunges for deep 
water. For small game the weight of the trap is sufficient 
to drown them, but for. larger animals a sliding pole is 
used. A pole about twelve feet long is taken and is 
stripped of all its branches, and a nail is driven into it on 
its upper side, in a slanting direction, near the smaller 
end of the pole, the head of the nail pointing towards 
that end. The pole is then placed near the trap set, 
which is very near the bank, the ring of the trap chain is 
slipped upon it. The larger end of the pole is fastened 
by a hook put over it and driven into the ground, but the 
pole is to be secured high enough from the ground for 
the ring to have a chance to traverse freely down the 
length of the pole ; the smaller end of the pole is fastened 
in the bed of the stream. When the animal springs the 
trap and makes its lunge for deep water, the chain ring 
slips down upon the pole and carries with it the trap and 



10 WESTERN WILD ANIMALS. 

the animal, but once past the nail it is held from return- 
ing : the animal must therefore drown. 

The Newhouse steel U^ap is the best one in use. It is 
perfectly adapted to all the purposes for which it is 
designed, except No. 4 for deer. I consider No. 4 worth- 
less for deer catching. A trap to catch a large buck 
should be nearly as strong as that required for a bear. I 
therefore use No. 5. 

The number of traps required for a good outfit dej: ends 
upon the kind of game to be trapped and the country in 
which one traps. If a man is going into the woods where 
there are no roads, and where he must carry his baggage 
upon his back, he will naturally limit his supplies to the 
actual necessities of the case. To fill this demand I 
would advise two dozen traps of Nos. 3 and 4, or large 
ones, and thirty-five small ones. If he can by boat reach 
the heart of his trapping ground, he can take as many as 
he pleases to carry; but it is never advisable to take 
more than the trapper can tend. From seventy-five to one 
hundred is as many as two persons can well tend under 
ordinary circumstances. 

It is preferable to have a trapping ground where one 
can travel mainly by water. It is easier, is pleasanter, 
and is more profitable. Light but serviceable boats may 
be easily made by any one of ordinary ingenuity and 
knowledge of boat building. 

For a camping outfit, I would advise that 7iof/ii7ig be 
taken that can well be dispensed with. Inexperienced 
hunters almost always cumber themselves with needless 
articles. Two heavy, double blankets are necessary for 
two persons. A small pail for tea or coffee, a small camp 
kettle, a frying-pan and a tin cup should be carried, and 
one knife and fork and two tin plates for each person. 



USEFUL HINTS ON WOODCRAFT. 11 

For food-stuffs I take flour, corn meal, beans, a little 
pork, some butter and sugar, and unless going very far 
into the woods I carry potatoes. A pocket knife^ a good 
compass^ matches^ and a hatchet are indispensible to a hunter's 
outfit. No man should ever go out from camp without 
them. 



12 WESTERN WILD ANIMALS. 



III. 
THE DEER. 



The deer family has been variously classified by natur- 
alists, some giving to it several genera, others regarding 
its groups not sufficiently marked to give to them generic 
character. Most writers base their classifications upon 
the hoins. The horns, however, are not found upon all 
species, nor at all seasons of the year, and they also as- 
sume a different aspect at different ages of the animal, 
and similar horns, in some instances, grow upon species 
otherwise distinct. Some have therefore classified them 
with respect to the kind of hair which forms the fur, to 
the form and extent of the muzzle, and to the position 
and presence of glands on the hind legs. Again, they are 
classified as follows : First, those of snowy regions, hav- 
ing a broad muzzle, hairy palmated horns, a shortfall, 
fawns not spotted; Second, those of temperate regions 
with a tapering muzzle, ending in a bald muflie, fawns 
and sometimes adults spotted. 

The deer family is represented in almost every region 
of the globe, AustraHa and central and southern Africa 
being the only exceptions to this universality of distribu- 
tion. Hills of moderate elevations, wide plains, and 
forests are the localities to which these fleet-limbed 
creatures give the preference. The most of them herd 
together in troops ; some few live singly. They use their 
powerful horns for weapons of defense, and sometimes of 
offense ; but in general they trust to flight for safety. 



THE DEER. 13 

They vary in size Trom the Pigmy Musk Deer of the 
Asiatic islands, whicii is not larger than a hare and weighs 
only five or six pounds, to the gigantic Moose which 
attains the height of seven feet at the shoulders, and 
weighs twelve hundred pounds. They vary in color in the 
difi'erent species, and also in the same species at different 
seasons of the year. They are timid creatures. In form 
they are light and elegant, and combine much compact- 
ness and strength, with slenderness of limb and velocity 
of movements. They furnish food and clothing, and are 
used as beasts of draft for many northern nations. 

The skeleton is constructed for lightness and rapid, 
springing motions ; and the spines of the dorsal vertebra 
are long and strong, thus suiting them for the origin of 
the thick ligaments necessary to support the ponderous 
head. The cavity of the skull is small, being in con- 
formity with the limited intelligence of the group. The 
neck of a deer is long, thus adapting the animal for graz- 
ing ; its head is small, and this it carries high. The eyes 
are large and full ; the pupils are elongated. In most of 
the species there is below each eye a sac or fold of the 
skin, varying in size, called suborbital or lachrymal 
sinuses or tear-pits. Their use is not fully understood ; 
but they doubtless serve some important purpose in the 
animal economy. They secrete a peculiar unctious fluid, 
said by some to be the most profuse during the rutting 
season. The ears are large. The tongue is soft. There 
are eight cutting teeth in the lower jaw, but none in the 
upper jaw. The males have usually two short canine 
teeth in the upper jaw, but neither sex has any in the 
lower. The prae molars are three in number, and there 
are three true molars on each side in each jaw. The 
deer is clothed with hair, which is longer and thicker in 
cold countries than in warm. The feet end in two toes. 



14 WESTERN WILD ANIMALS. 

each with its sharp hoof resembling a single hoof which 
has been cleft. Behind and above there are two small 
rudimentary toes or hoofs. The two metacarpal and 
metatarsal bones are united into a single bone. 

The deer is a ruminating animal. It is distinguished 
from all other ruminants by branching antlers or horns, 
which, in the most of the species, exist in the males only. 
These horns are solid, and are lost and renewed annually. 
They increase in size and breadth of palmation until the 
animal has become old, when the horn diminishes in size 
at each annual renewal. The reproduction of the horn 
is the most active during the rutting season. It is not 
until spring, or the beginning of the second year that the 
first pair of horns begins to make an appearance. 
When these do begin to grow, it is sometimes the case 
that one is in advance of the other. I believe it to be an 
erroneous idea, which so many have, that the deer grows 
a pair of horns when one year old, and that for every 
additional year there is always an additional prong to 
each horn. The growth of the horns depends entirely 
upon the condition of the deer. Sometimes prongs will 
appear upon the horns when the animal is but two years 
old, and the next year there may be none added. Some- 
times there are three prongs on one horn more than on 
the other. The process by which the horns are devel- 
oped, die and are shed is a very curious one, and is 
described in the " Museum of Animated Nature," as 
follows : " The skin enveloping the peduncles swells, 
its arteries enlarge, tides of blood rush to the head, and 
the whole system experiences a fresh stimulus. The 
antlers are now budding, for on the top of these footstalks 
the arteries are now depositing layers of osseous matter, 
particle by particle, with great rapidity ; as they increase 



THE DEER. 15 

the skin increases in an equal ratio, still covering the 
budding antlers, and continues so to do, until they have 
acquired their due development and solidity. This 
skin is a tissue of blood-vessels, and the courses of 
the large arteries from the head to the end of the antlers 
are imprinted on the latter in long furrows, which are 
never obliterated. In ordinary language the skin invest- 
ing the antlers is termed velvet, being covered with a fine 
pile of close, short hair. Suppose, then, the antlers of 
the young deer now duly grown, and still invested with 
this vascular tissue; but the process is not yet complete. 
While this tender velvet remains, the deer can make no 
use of his newly-acquired weapons, which are destined 
to bear the brunt of many a conflict with his compeers ; 
it must therefore be removed, but without giving a sudden 
check to the current of blood rolling through this extent 
of skin, lest by directing the tide to the brain, or some 
internal organ, death be the result. The process, then, 
is this : — as soon as the antlers are complete, according 
to the age of the individual, the arteries at their base, 
where they join the permanent foot-stalk, always covered 
with skin, begin to deposit around it a burr, or rough 
ring of bone, with notches through which the great 
arteries still pass. Gradually, however, the diameter of 
these openings is contracted by the deposition of addi- 
tional matter, till at length the great arteries are com- 
pressed as by a ligature, and the circulation is effectually 
stopped. The velvet now dies for want of vital fluid ; 
it shrivels, dries, and peels off in shreds, the animal as- 
sisting in getting rid of it by rubbing his antlers against 
the trees. They are now firm, hard, and white ; the stag 
bears them proudly, and brandishes them in defiance of 
his rivals. From the burr upwards, these antlers are now no 



16 WESTEUN WILD ANIMAL8. 

longer part and parcel of the system ; they are extraneous, 
and held only by their mechanical continuity with the 
foot-stalk on which they were placed; hence their decid- 
uous character, for it is a vital law that the system shall 
throw off all parts no longer intrinsically entering into 
the integrity of the whole. An absorptive process soon 
begins to take place just beneath the burr, removing par- 
ticle after particle, till at length the antlers are separated 
and fall by their own weight, or by the slightest touch, 
leaving the living end of the foot-stalk exposed and 
slightly bleeding. This is immediately covered with 
a pellicle of skin, which soon thickens, and all is well. 
The return of spring brings with it a renewal of the whole 
process with renewed energy, and a finer pair of antlers 
branches forth." 

The origin of the horns is called the burr, the main 
shaft the beam, and the branches antlers ; when near 
the head they are called brow antlers. If the brow antlers 
grow forward over the face, they are called by hunters 
the " looker prongs" ; the termination of the beam is. 
called the perch, and the small processes are called snags 
and prickets. 

The horns begin to grow in April, and attain their full 
size in August. They are shed, according to the condi- 
tion of the animal, any time from December to February. 
The color of the horns is a pale red when the antlers first 
branch through the velvety skin, and by a gradual change 
it comes to be by October a yellowish brown, and by the 
time they are again ready to fall off are very light colored, 
sometimes said to be white. 

The species in which American trappers are most prac- 
tically interested are the Virginian deer and the Black 
Tailed deer. 










I 



THE DEER. 17 

THE VIRGINIAN DEER. 

The graceful creature known as the Virginian deer is the 
most useful of the wild game of North America ; it is 
valuable to the red man and the white, to professional 
hunters and trappers, and an unfailing source of delight 
to the sportsman. It is also interesting to the naturalist, 
because of its physical beauty, and the peculiarity of its 
habits. The flesh of the deer is counted by many a very 
desirable article of food. The Indians eat it in preference 
to almost any other meat. Of its horns are made handles 
of various kinds of cutlery ; of its skin clothing is made ; 
its sinews form the bow-strings and the snow-shoe netting 
of the North American Indian. The Virginian Deer is 
found in nearly all of the states of the Union east of the 
Rocky Mountains. ■ Deer are gregarious, though fre- 
quently found alone. The average herd is from four to 
seven — I have seen thirty-two in a herd. 

It is not true, as is generally supposed, that deer are 
fond of grass. They do not like to eat timothy grass, 
and will not if other food can be found. Their food in 
summer consists of berries, nuts, roots, twigs, and persim- 
mons ; they are especially fond of buckwheat when it is 
just peeping through the ground, and is very tender. 
They delight in going over recently burned districts, and 
feeding on the tender weeds, and on young raspberry 
shoots. Hunters take advantage of this habit when they 
expect in a few weeks to hunt deer. They like what is 
tender and juicy. In the summer they frequent lakes 
and rivers to feed upon the water plants. They are very 
■fond of the pond lily, eating both blossoms and leaf; 
they are also fond of the mosses that grow upon stones 
in the water. They find under the water a plant which 
grows about a foot high, and for which they will throw 

2 



18 WESTERN WILD ANIMALS. 

the head far under, and if need be, nearly immerse the 
body to get it. Hunters call it deer cabbage. They are 
very fond of fruits of almost every kind. They do not 
crop their food by the mouthful, as does the cow, but 
select here and there a tender leaf or twig. They fre- 
quently visit the pioneer's clearing, appropriating his 
wheat, corn, oats, turnips, and cabbages ; all of which 
they like to eat. In the autumn they feed largely upon 
acorns and other nuts. In the winter they retire to thick 
groves and woods, and to swamps, but do not go into the 
densest region of the forest, nor to the thickest of the 
swamps. They resort to these places to find the cedars 
which grow along the edges of the swamps. They are 
very fond of the white or yellow cedar, which grows in 
such regions. Moss, barks and browse are their chief 
support during the winter. 

The Virginian Deer may be known by the peculiar 
shape of its horns, which in the adult male are of mod- 
erate size, bent boldly backwards, then suddenly hooked 
forwards. The average weight of the horns is four 
pounds, that of the animal, at live weight, is two hundred 
pounds. 

Cast horns are said to be rarely found. It is true that 
they are rarely found in countries where the deer are them- 
selves seldom found ; but in regions where deer abound, 
their horns are often seen lying upon the ground. The 
animal does not cover its cast horns ; but leaves them 
and pays no attention to them whatever. They may, of 
course, be at times covered ; but, if so, not by any effort 
of the deer to secrete them, but by a perfectly natural 
process, as the falling of leaves, or of trees, or in the 
northern regions by deep snows. I have many times been 
in the woods where deer were plenty, and their cast horns 



THE DEER. im 

were scattered about in great numbers, there being in all' 
probability not a single pair of horns secreted by any 
animal. They are eaten by the flying squirrel, and a 
mouse, called by the hunters the buck mouse. I have 
seen deer's beds, at the time of casting horns, where the 
antlers have evidently fallen, the one to the right and the 
other to the left of the animals as they had lain in those 
beds, and were undisturbed by them. I have shot deer 
having but one horn, the other being but just cast, and 
untouched by its owner. 

As to the time of casting horns, the Virginian Deer 
forms no exception to the rule given for the family at 
large, unless it be that they sometimes shed them earlier 
in December than many species, and later in February, 
Sometimes they cast them even later than in February, 
In cold countries, and in unusually cold seasons they 
cast them very early in December, while in the same 
regions in open winters much later in the season. This 
is true of deer in the Lake Superior regions. In 1849 I 
killed a deer on the morning of the 12th of April, in 
Wisconsin, and both horns were solid on the head. This 
was of course an exceptional case. 

Sometimes the horns remain upon the head until' 
they have become so loose as to fall by their own weight ; 
sometimes they may rub them off with their feet ; or they 
may be pulled off by the brushwood, or pushed off by 
branches or trunks of trees when running through thickets ; 
or they may be tossed off by a sudden and violent shake- 
of the head. 

It is said that bucks often lock horns, and that it is 
sometimes Hterally a "deadlock." Mr. Wright speaks^ 
in the American Naturalist, of killing a pair of bucks 
so firmly united that they would have died of hunger^ 



20 WESTERN WILD ANIMALS. 

had he not killed them. Wood cites an instance in which 
three pairs of horns were interlocked, the skulls and 
skeletons attesting the deadly nature of the combat. 

The hair is shed twice a year; the color of the animal 
is, therefore, different at different seasons of the year, and 
so continuous is the change of color that an observant 
hunter can tell within a month of the time when the deer 
has been killed, or has died. The summer coat is called 
red, it is about the color of a red cow. The bucks are 
of a brighter color than the does. The fall color is called 
blue ; it is about a slate color. The winter coat is 
whitish. In June the deer wears its reddish coat, by 
August it has changed. 

As the hair grows long for winter wear, the skin grows 
thin. In January, February, March, and April the skin 
is almost worthless. In the fall, when the deer is in its 
best condition, the reverse is true, the skin is the most 
serviceable, but the hair is not good. The hair is hollow, 
soft, and of great service in commerce. 

T\m color of the deer on the lower parts, from the 
chin to the end of the tail, is whitish. The young, until 
four months old, are of a bright reddish brown, with 
irregular, longitudinal white spots ; they afterwards re- 
semble the old ones. 

They measure five feet and four inches from the nose 
to the root of the tail. The length of the tail, including 
the hair, is twelve inches, the bones being only six inches 
long. The ear is five and a half inches high. The deer 
of two years has two teeth, of three years four teeth, of 
four years six, and of five years a full mouth. The age 
of the animal may be quite accurately determined by its 
teeth. By the time it is five years old it has shed its 
fawn teeth. Its permanent teeth are short and quite 



THE DEER. 21 

broad ; as it grows old its teeth become quite pointed. 
It is by the number and shape of the teeth that the age 
may be determined. The average age of the deer is 
twelve years. 

The deer has large, lustrous, nearly black eyes. The 
eyes are so full that the animal is readily apprised of 
danger coming far to the rear, and unless an animal or 
person directly behind it comes with the fewest possible 
motions will be detected. The senses of hearing, seeing, 
and smelling are very acute ; but the last one named is 
the only one that can, of itself, insure the animal safety. 
The deer is exceedingly timid, and persecution has 
increased its timidity. It soon gets acquainted with the 
voices and general appearance of its pursuers, and 
becomes doubly cautious of them. It will run sooner 
from the voice of a dog than a man. It will run from 
one Indian sooner than from several white men, though 
in point of fact the white man is the better hunter. The 
Indian will run as fast as possible upon the deer's track, 
driving it from him at every step ; while the white man, 
with more skillful management, will kill or catch the deer. 
The deer has for so long been a shot for the hunter's 
rifle, the prize for the chase, and the prey of many 
animals, that it is easily startled by any of the thou- 
sand noises that wake the silent woods. The sense of 
vision is at once called into play, and in most cases if 
the motion is inconsiderable it will recover confidence 
when apprised of the cause. The form and color of a 
strange object have but little effect in frightening a deer ; 
it is motion that draws its attention. 

The deer may approach very near a person, and, so 
long as the man is still, he fears no danger. A man may 
also approach very near to a deer. One day when 
accompanied by a fellow hunter I saw a deer at some 



22 WESTERX WILD ANIMALS. 

distance from us, which my companion thought we could 
not approach near enough to shoot. The deer stood on 
one side of a marsh; we were on the opposite side, and 
there was nothing between us that by any motion could 
possibly frighten it. It was at the time feeding. When 
a deer feeds it does not stand still, as for instance the 
cow, but keeps on walking, nibbling and biting here a 
little, and beyond a little. When feeding, before it steps 
along it will whisk the tail about, look around to see if 
all is right and it is safe. If all is well, it will browse 
again ; but if not, and it is at all frightened, it will bristle 
up the tail and raise it erect. Since the tail is white on 
the under side, it may be seen in this position at some 
distance. By taking advantage of these facts, so well 
known to hunters, I came within thirty rods of the deer 
and killed it. 

When the deer looks up, if it sees a man or any fright- 
ful object, it looks at it steadily; if the man moves, the 
•deer will very soon run ; but if he remains still, the deer 
will look to the right and to the left, drop its head and 
feed again, look up again at the man, to the right and the 
left, and again drop its head. After proceeding in this 
manner for some time it will lose its fear. The deer 
keeps its head down but a very short time, probably not 
more than half a minute; the hunter can, therefore, 
approach the animal only by slow degrees, as he must 
step while the deer's head is down, and remain motion- 
less while the head is up. When he has come sufficiently 
near to it to fire, all his preparation for firing must be as 
gradually performed as was his advancing upon the 
animal. The approach upon a single deer is thus com- 
paratively easy. When two are together feeding it can- 
not be done so easily ; for they will not, unless by chance, 
and then only for a very short time feed at the same time, 



THE DEER. 03 

and indeed such chances seldom become verified in fact. 
The difficulty increases with every deer in the herd. 
When several are together, it is many times useless to 
attempt to get within shot of them, but better to seek a 
smaller herd. Hunters upon the prairie pursue this 
method. In the woods the hunter is secreted by trees 
or bushes. 

It is worthy of note to the hunter and to the sportsman 
that the deer will be more easily caught at feeding times 
than when lying down, as they are in the latter case 
always on the watch. In the morning, at noon, and at 
night deer are feeding. The early morning is the best 
time of day for hunting them. They feed until the sun 
is about an hour high, then lie down until about eleven 
o'clock ; after this they feed for an hour or two, and again 
lying down they remain until near sunset, when they get 
up and feed more or less, but probably do not lie down 
much during the night, but play and race about. 

I said that deer will sometimes approach very near a 
person. One day Mr. Streeter and I, who were at the 
time hunting together, w^ere sitting one on either side of 
the trunk of a fallen tree. A little poplar stood close 
beside us. We saw^ a d^er approaching, and as it evi- 
dently had not yet seen us, we decided we would not 
touch it, but by remaining motionless see how near to us 
it would come. We remained quiet, and the deer had 
come close to us and was feeding by the branches 
of the fallen tree before it saw us. It then 
snorted, or "blowed," as the hunters call it, seemed 
frightened, looked me steadily in the face, but soon 
began to feed again, at every step nearing us. Soon it 
cropped some leaves from the little tree close by my side. 
We began to whisper to each other, and then to talk to 



34 WESTERN WILD ANIMALS. 

the deer. We told it to come on, that we were pledged 
not to hurt it. It did not come, but jumped back a few 
feet, and as soon as its senses of vision and hearing had 
satisfied it of the cause of its fear, our little game was 
played, and we let the creature go as it pleased. 

The deer's sense of smell is so very acute that if it 
smells its danger it is not so easily bewildered. No very 
near approach can be made upon the deer, nor will be 
made by the deer if the wind blows from the object of 
fright upon it. Hunters must therefore advance " up '* 
or " against the wind." 

Deer emit but few sounds that may be termed vocal. 
One sound is quite like that made by a calf when 
frightened. The fawn, when caught, bleats like a lamb 
under like circumstances, and the grown deer sometimes 
cries out in much the same fashion. Another sound the 
hunters call a "blow." It is a sort of snort or explosive 
whistle, but the emission of air is from the nostrils. 
When the deer snorts, it throws one of its fore feet for- 
ward and stamps with it upon the ground ; just before it 
snorts it throws its ears back, but as it snorts, throws 
them forwards. The doe will alw^ays bawl when shot. 
The buck does not ; neither does the buck blow as much 
nor as often as the doe. The doe has a fine, low, and 
pleasant voice or call for its young. This call is re- 
sponded to by the fawn. This response is something 
like the bleating of a little lamb ; but the sound is con- 
tinued longer. It may be well to say here that though it 
is stated by reliable authorities that the terms Buck, Doe, 
and Fawn are incorrectly applied to the Virginian Deer^ 
the Black Tailed Deer, and the American Elk or Moose, 
and should be replaced by the terms Stag, Hind, and 
Calf, that hunters throughout the countries where these 



THE DEER. 25 

species are found invariably call the male deer the Buck, 
the female the Doe, and the young deer the Fawn. 

It is said that the old bucks consort together the most 
of the year, and that the does and young bucks go in 
herds by themselves. In the fall the males go singly, 
though they meet at their " pawing places," where they 
root up the dirt, bark trees, paw up the snow, and engage 
in fierce contests. It is rarely the case that two old 
bucks are found together when feeding or lying down, 
especially in the fall. The fawn does not, as some have 
said, often follow a man who is on horse back. If it has 
been carried by a man, and he puts it down, for a time it 
will follow him. 

The leader of a deer herd is not necessarily the finest, 
the largest, or fattest one, and may not be a male deer. 
A female deer is quite as apt to be the leader of a herd, 
and the largest buck to be the rearmost of the herd. 
When a herd is following its leader, it takes the single file, 
and so exactly do they follov/ each other that a person 
observing the track could scarcely tell if th^re had been 
more than a single deer over it. A fawn is sometimes 
the leader of a herd. On one occasion I came suddenly 
upon two bucks and a fawn, the bucks being led by the 
fawn. As is always advisable when a hunter fires into a 
herd, I fired at the leader, this time the better creature, 
and killed it. I then shot the first buck, broke its back 
but did not kill it. The second buck had by this time 
gone off, and stood looking at me from behind an old 
log. I fired at it, and knocked out all the teeth on one 
side ; the deer then started up, made a circuit about me, 
and came up in front of me and about twelve rods from 
me. I killed it and then went to my wounded deer and 
killed it. The five shots were fired within a very few 



26 WESTERN WILD ANIMALS. 

minutes of each other, and I was the possessor of an 
unexpected prize. 

The doe bears her young about the middle of May, or 
in June, the first, when she is two years old. She retires 
from the male deer, and carefully watches her fawns, 
though much of the time at a distance, probably because 
of her anxiety that nothing shall detect their hiding 
place. She secretes them so effectually that it is 
difficult to find them. About the last of July, when they 
are able to run about, as fast as she does, she brings 
them out from their retreats. For about six weeks they 
run with the doe, after which, until November or Decem- 
ber, the doe hides from the fawns. She then returns to 
them, and through the winter they run about with or 
without each other. The doe generally has two fawns at 
a birth, and she rarely loses one. Probably one out of 
every twenty-five raises young every year. 

The deer is not found in so great numbers as formerly, 
having been diminished by the hunter's rifle, and like the 
Indian and many wild beasts of forest and plain, driven 
before advancing civilization. Stringent laws are in force 
in some countries for the protection of these beautiful 
creatures. But nature, in all of her sources and resources, 
is still rich. She furnishes a system of compensations by 
which a weak spot has somewhere a support ; a defense- 
less creature has still some protection. No dog, or other 
animal can scent a fawn, thus, while otherwise defenseless, 
it matures without molestation, and when mature, stands 
its chances with its fellows to escape all harm. 

The males are prime from August to November. The 
does are at this time lean and in poor condition. The 
bucks are then both careless and fearless, and become an 
easy prey to the hunter : the doe, driven by hunger, is 



THE DEER. 27 

intent on feeding, and generally before midwinter comes 
into good condition. The bucks, in turn, have become 
lean, and the skin and flesh are worthless, the former 
emphatically good for nothing, and the latter having ac- 
quired a rank taste, is inviting to no man's palate, unless 
lie be driven by extreme hunger. 

Deer delight in immersing themselves in water during 
the hot weather, to rid themselves of such persecutors 
as the fly and the mosquito. They are excellent swim- 
mers. Their bodies are deeply submerged, and they 
swim so rapidly that nothing but an Indian canoe can 
easily overtake them. They are enduring swimmers, and 
have often been seen crossing broad rivers, and swimming 
a distance of two miles. 

About the 2cth of August the deer which are in the 
northern regions begin to wend their way southward, 
going in small herds. They start early in the morning 
and travel until about noon, when they feed, lie down, 
and do not move on until the following morning. Later 
in the migratory season, the herds are larger and the 
marches longer. Those going last are again in small 
herds, but they will travel at the rate of one hundred 
miles a day, and will scarcely stop for food or sleep. A 
similar course is pursued in May, when the deer return 
northward. They may be caught when going either 
to the north or the south by building fences or other bar- 
ricades across their paths. They are to be built in the shape 
of the letter X, and a watchful hunter can then easily capture 
them. They are the most easily captured, and may be 
taken in the greatest numbers at their migratory seasons ; 
but what is true in very many instances is true in this 
case, — what costs the least, either in money or effort, is 
worth the least. It is not alwavs advisable to catch 



28 WE8TERN WILD ANIMALS. 

whole herds of deer because they may be so caught. 

In the winter, when the snow is deep, they make 
" yards " and paths by tramping down the snow. From 
these paths they reach from one side to the other for their 
food. They collect in large herds in their yards, and 
these are enlarged from time to time as the deer need 
more room for browsing. Wolves and panthers are here 
their most formidable foes, unless we except the hunter. 
Panthers, or more properly cougars, steal upon them on 
the sly, when in these yards. They crawl close to them, 
and spring suddenly upon them, or they watch them from 
some cliff or tree, and from these places pounce upon 
them after the manner of a wolf coming upon a fold. 
Wolves sometimes pursue a single deer with the " long 
chase." In the summer deer will avoid wolves by spring- 
ing into the water. 

Deer may be easily domesticated, but it is quite impos- 
sible to keep them tame. They will remain for months, 
and sometimes for a year or two about their new home, 
but are almost always sure to get back to their native 
haunts. Even while they may be supposed to be thor- 
oughly domesticated, they do not lose their native shy- 
ness. They are the first to notice danger coming to the 
enclosures of a farm or yard. Were they not such trouble- 
some pets they would be exceedingly desirable ones. 

There are several methods used by men for catching 
deer. That most in vogue with sportsmen is known as the 
chase. For sportsmen this, will answer; as the object 
desired is gained in the exciting pleasure which the chase 
furnishes. It is not, however, a desirable method for the 
practical woodsman, though practiced by many of them. 
The hunter and the hound are not the only excited ones 
in the party. The excitement, which is the most intense 



THE BEER. 29 

with the deer, affects its whole physical structure to that 
extent that it spoils the flesh for food. The legs beconie 
immediately stiff as soon as the animal is chased down. 
The meat is dry, hard, and black, and the surface of the 
flesh has a frothy appearance as the hide is torn off. 

Fire hunting is the method used most successfully in 
the summer. At this time deer resort to the water side, 
and the hunter prepared with boat, gun, and lamp may 
be quite sure of his game. The light is set on the bow 
of the boat, so that it will shine on the forward sight of 
the gun, and at the same time conceal the hunter by its 
glare. To furnish him more certain protection, there 
must be a board, measuring about eight inches in height, 
put between the hunter and the lamp. The front side of 
the board must be blackened. A very bright light 
attracts the eye of the deer. When the hunter is hidden 
from the sight of the deer, he may see the amimal with- 
out being in return observed by it, and may, by proper 
steering, come within a very few feet of it, sometimes 
almost within reaching distance. The glare of the light 
being so great as to cover in its light the boat and the 
boatman, the deer, in its curiosity to see what it is, fre- 
quently advances to meet its enemy ; the two thus advanc- 
ing upon each other may often come within six feet of 
each other, and I have known hunters to run their boats 
so close to deer as to hit them. For this method of hunt- 
ing the boat must be so steered that the bow shall point 
directly to the animal ; else if the blackened board should 
be turned edgewise towards the deer, and certainly if 
turned so far as to hide any of the light, the deer will at 
once see the man, and the man is then very likely not to 
see it again. The oars must be muffled, and there must 
be no noise in the boat. By the reflected gleams from 



30 WESTERN WILD ANIMALS. 

the eyes of the deer, the hunter is enabled to get a very- 
good aim at it. Many are taken in this method in the 
early autumn. Another method of fire hunting calls into 
use the police lantern, which is put upon the hunter's 
cap. This lantern may be used in the water or fire-hunt- 
ing just described, or it may be used on the land, if the 
hunter is where he can walk quietly. 

The steel trap, as some affirm, is not much used for 
taking deer. That is a mistake, and more, the steel trap 
is used very effectively. Some also say that sportsmen 
regard the use of it for deer catching as barbarous. In 
point of fact it cannot be less barbarous than the sports- 
man's dog trap. In the latter case the long chase with 
the blood-hounds is made use of with the object and 
professed object of furnishing amusement or sport, as the 
name implies, to the sportsman. The practical deer 
hunter makes use of the steel trap ; because it is an effec- 
tual means of its capture ; because it is an easy metlfbd 
of capture, and is harmless to the flesh, the skin, or hair 
of the animal. It also subjects the animal to suffering of 
less duration than the chase ; for the hunter, a part of 
whose business it is to watch his traps, takes the animal 
from its close quarters before it has been there long. 
Steel traps for deer catching must be large and stout, and 
must strike very high on the leg. They must be stout 
enough to break the bone, else it will not prevent their 
escape. They should be strong enough for a bear. The 
trap should be placed in the path of the deer where it 
crosses a stream, or enters a lake, and should be set 
under water, and in some way concealed by other cover- 
ing than the water. If it is as heavy as it ought to be, it 
should not be fastened, or even clogged : the violence of 
the animal is so great when caught that unless it can drag 



THE DEER. 31 

the trap away with it for a little distance, or satisfy its 
nervousness by its desperate plunges, it will break loose. 

The steel trap is of great service in what hunters call 
a " noisy time," a dry time, when the leaves, grass, or brush 
are so dry as to rustle loudly under the feet, and thus 
prevent a near approach. 

The trap may also be set in their paths in the snow, 
and covered lightly by it. It should be set at some place 
in the path where the deer is to step over a stick or log. 
If there are no such obstacles in the way, put something 
there. Fell a maple or bass-wood tree, and let it lie 
across the track, or put there an old hemlock limb which 
has moss on it, that it may detract attention and cover 
the scent. I sometimes set a browse tree, maple, hem- 
lock, or bass-wood as the country may furnish, and con- 
ceal the trap under the snow, close to the browse. The 
deer's sense of smelling is very acute : the trees just 
mentioned furnish the deer's favorite browse : they soon 
scent it, and approach it, and in most cases are soon 
entrapped. 

Another method of deer catching we call the " still 
hunt." We then take them by following up on their tracks, 
or by watching their run-ways. When hunting by the 
still hunt the man should not follow precisely in the 
tracks of the deer, but follow along that track, going 
sometimes on one side of it and sometimes on the other, 
and frequently crossing it. Many hunters are unsuccess- 
ful in hunting deer by this method, because they follow 
exactly in the foot tracks of the animal, and if they do 
not at the time capture their prize, they lessen the 
chance for another day, as the deer is frightened, and 
takes a new track. Let the hunter, when he finds the 
deer's track, keep in sight of it, but not upon it, taking a 



32 WESTERN WILD ANIMALS. 

circuitous, or better, a wave-like course along the track, 
and frequently crossing it. Let him now, though cau- 
tiously, and as if ignorant of the deer's nearness, take a 
circuitous route about the deer. The latter has, doubtless, 
by the acuteness of its vision, seen the man before he has 
seen it, and as a deer soon loses its restless fear when 
apprised of the cause of its fright, and will stand and 
watch the man, he may come about it in narrow and still 
narrower circles, until he shall come within shooting 
distance of it. The still hunt may be effectively used 
when the hunter is on horseback. This last method is, 
in my opinion, the best one. The manner of following 
the track shall be the same as that just described. If the 
hunter is so fortunate as to come upon a herd instead of 
a single deer, let him, having marked the leader, which 
he can readily do by watching the maneuvers of the herd, 
iire upon it. He must, if possible, hit the animal too far 
back upon the body to kill it. If it is too badly wounded 
to prevent its running off, the rest of the herd will not 
leave it, but will soon gather close about it. The hunter 
may then pick them off, one at a time, and when all are 
killed he may then kill the wounded creature. Some- 
times when deer are very badly frightened they will not 
run, but will stop. It sometimes works well to put a bell 
on the horse's neck, as the deer can hear the bell before 
they can see the approaching horse, and will lose their 
fear of its sound before the hunter is in shooting distance 
of it. 

When a hunter starts up a deer and it jumps from 
fright, and is about to run off, it will frequently pay him 
to give a short, shrill whistle, or a sharp crack of his gun, 
to arrest the attention of the animal. The deer will 
almost always stop for a moment when it hears such a 



THE DEER. 33 

noise. A sharp, quick noise of almost any kind, if loud 
enough, will arrest its attention. The skillful hunter may 
then, by cautious maneuvers, secure his game. 

Deer will sometimes feed in the evening during the fall 
Avhen they can get fall wheat, and rye, and they may then 
be shot by moonlight. To do this, a screen of some sort 
must be found, by which a gun may be set, and so sighted 
as to strike an object which may be ten or twelve rods 
distant, at a height of twenty-seven inches from the 
ground : behind the screen the hunter watches the ap- 
proach of his game, and if it comes between him and his 
mark, his only care then is to fire his gun while he keeps 
his eye upon the animal. The shot is almost always 
sure, as it will hit a large deer, but rather low, and a 
small one, but rather high. This method is also a good 
one to use when deer are feeding or traveling in the 
woods. 

Most people who know anything of the deer know 
what is meant by a deer lick, and know that the licks are 
counted favorite places for deer catching. In many cases 
there are natural licks. Where the water is soft deer will 
work at them well ; but where it is hard they will not. 
They do not always prefer to drink the salt water, but 
very often choose to lick the salt from stones where it has 
crystallized. When artificial deer licks are made by the 
hunter, he should throw the salt in low, wet places, as 
the deer, when susjicious of coming danger, does not look 
to high grounds, but almost always to the lowest spots. 
The hunter, by taking advantage of this fact, can ap- 
proach his game with much less danger of being seen. 
Sometimes salt may be put into old logs or hollow 
stumps. In selecting places for deer licks, the hunter 
should, if poss'.ble, be able to approach the deer from the 



34 WESTERN WILD ANIMALS. 

higher ground, and when the wind comes from the ani- 
mal upon him, that it may not scent him. 

In cloudy or rainy weather deer will come out to feed 
at all times of day. In clear weather they will feed early 
in the morning, and again near night. Times and seasons 
are, then, to be observed in the watching of deer licks. 

Amateurs and sportsmen frequently overlook deer, 
because they look too high or too far away for them. 
They may frequently be found behind a bush or log, 
either standing or lying down. If there is a fallen tree 
near you, look closely in its top, or if there is a knoll near 
by which is covered with brushwood, look sharp but low 
for them. Many inexperienced hunters look only for the 
tracks of the deer, as if by that means alone they could 
find them. This course is emphatically unadvisable, for 
when a man is once following a deer in its track, there is 
no more certain way of frightening it, and of keeping it 
beyond his reach. Deer are very apt to make some short 
turn just before lying down, and they are very likely to 
lie down upon some elevated spot where they can watch 
their back track. If, then, a hunter will watch a track, 
but not walk upon it^ he can readily find his game when 
lying near its trail. 

Such hunters are likewise apt to travel too fast, thus 
needlessly attracting the attention of the animal, and de- 
creasing their chance of getting their game. Every 
motion must be made cautiously, quietly, and often very 
slowly. They are also too apt to think it advisable to kill 
a deer whenever they are within shot of one. Great 
precaution should be used by the hunter in choosing his 
game where deer are plenty and may be taken in great 
numbers, especially if he would make his craft pecuni- 
arily successful. Furthermore, it is as essential to the 



THE BEEB. 35 

monetary success of the practital woodsman that he have 
some knowledge of the relations of the supply and de- 
mand in the fur and wild game markets, as that any mer- 
chant, mechanic, or other workman should understand 
the business, each of his own line, in order to make it to 
him in any way a paying business. It is only at certain 
seasons that fur dealers call for furs, and the market does 
not cry so loud the year round for the venison. 

I would recommend for deer hunting a rifle of large 
calibre, as the hard bone will not then prevent a good 
shot: it will make a large hole in the hide, and the blood 
will therefore flow much faster. A breech-loader is the 
best, for two reasons : it is quickly loaded, and is sure of 
fire. I have often been asked where I aim at a deer 
when I shoot one. If it is fair broad side towards me, I 
aim two or three inches back of the fore leg, one third of 
the way up the body, being thus sure that the ball, as it 
enters the body, will go through the heart and lungs. 

The hunter should wear, if possible, light colored 
clothes, as they are less likely to attract attention than 
dark ones. A cap made of light colored cloth, with a 
little cape to come down onto the shoulders, is also a very 
serviceable article of apparel ; it preserves the uniform 
color of the form, and keeps the head dry, in case there 
is snow upon the trees and bushes. Buckskin moccasins 
are of twofold service : they are comfortable, and are 
not noisy. 

A dog well trained for deer hunting makes a good com- 
panion and a serviceable assistant. 

THE BLACK-TAILED DEER. 

This deer is found in California, and is sometimes 
called the California Deer. Those found in the moun- 
tains are larger, but shorter than the deer of the eastern 



36 WESTERN WILD ANIMALS. 

part of the United States. Their antlers bear a stronger 
resemblance to the European Stag than to the Virginian 
Deer, Its color is reddish brown : a blackish brown 
streak encircles the chest and shoulders like a collar : the 
tail is dark brown : the tip of the tail is black, hence the 
name of this species. . It was first noticed by Lewis and 
Clark, near the Columbia river. It replaces the Virginian 
Deer west of the Rocky Mountains. It is not as graceful 
as the latter-named species. . The methods used in cap- 
turing it are the same as those described for the Virginian 
Deer. 

LONG-TAILED DEER. 

There is also in California what is called the Long- 
tailed Deer. . It is smaller and more graceful than the 
Black-tailed Deer. It resembles the Roebuck. 

ELK OR MOOSE. 

This species is the largest of the deer family. It 
stands seven and a half feet high, measured at the shoul- 
ders. The horns are palmated, and are very large, 
frequently weighing sixty or seventy pounds. The weight 
of its body is from eight hundred to twelve hundred 
pounds. It is found in Canada and the north-western 
Lake Superior regions, and is still found in northern 
Maine. It is very shy. Its sense of smell is very acute. 
Moose are captured by the still-hunt : torches are used. 
The hunters cannot go on horseback ; as the regions 
inhabited by them could not be traveled by horseback 
riders. It is the most easily domesticated of any of the 
deer. 

THE CARIBOU. 

The Woodland Caribou, as it is sometimes called, is a 
variety of the Reindeer. It inhabits the woodland 





THE WAPITI, OR "ELK." 



THE BEER. 87 

and deep snow regions lying between Hudson's Bay and 
Lake Superior. Its weight varies from two hundred to 
three hundred pounds. 

THE WAPITI OR ELK. 

This animal represents in America the common Stag 
or Red Deer of Europe. It is sometimes called the 
Carolina Stag, but is popularly known as the Elk. The 
name Elk is, however, properly applied to the Moose of 
colder latitudes. The Wapiti or Elk is a native of North 
America, where it ranges in herds varying in number 
from ten to several hundreds, and roams from the Atlantic 
to the Pacific. Its northern range is bounded by the 
country in which the IMoose Deer are found in the great- 
est numbers. As compared with the Virginian Deer, it 
is larger, measuri ig, as it does, more than seven feet from 
the nose to the root of the tail, and stands about five feet 
high, measured at the shoulders : in color it is quite 
similar to the former, and undergoes quite sim.ilar changes 
at different times of the year : the horns are larger, and 
are even larger than on the English Stag. In their 
matured condition the horns are of a chestnut brown 
color : the snags proceed from the anterior surface, the 
lower-most ones are " looker prongs," so the hunter calls 
them. What is true of the Virginian Deer is also true of 
the elk, the number of snags varies with the condition of 
the animal. An average pair of horns measures four or 
five feet in width, from tip to tip of each, and weighs 
from twenty to thirty pounds. The track of the elk is 
different from that made by the common deer ; the latter 
is quite pointed on its front side, the former is more blunt, 
being nearly as broad on its front side as on its back. 
The Caribou makes a track almost like that of the elk, all 



38 WESTERN WILD ANIMALS. 

the others of the family make a pointed track, and in 
some cases the point is very sharp. The physical appear- 
ance, and the habits of the elk are represented by those 
already given of the Virginian Deer. It is strong, and 
courageous, and is much more combative in disposition 
than our common deer. It may be taken by the methods 
already described for deer hunting. 



THE ANTELOPE. 



IV. 
THE ANTELOPE. 



Antelopes have hollow horns, which vary somewhat in 
size and shape in the different species. Like the animals 
previously described, they ruminate : like them, too, 
many of them have slender bodies, a rapid and graceful 
gait. In point of physical structure they resemble the 
deer; but they surpass them in the three points just 
mentioned. The horns are conical, are bent backwards, 
are in general not large as compared with those of the 
deer, are hollow and are permanent and not annually 
shed and renewed. The hollow, permanent horns form 
the basis upon which their classification has been made 
by naturalists. It is stated in the American Cyclopedia 
that the name of the antelopean family in the Greek, the 
Hebrew, and the Arabic languages is significant of the 
brightness and beauty of their eyes. Certain it is, that 
no brighter or more beautiful eye looks out from the head 
of any animal than of this one. 

The American antelope, or pronghorn, is one of the 
goat- like antelopes, and is in many respects like the ante- 
lope of the Alps, the famous 'chamois. The horns are 
erect, the tips only are curved, and are curved, inward 
instead of backward, as is generally the case : there is 
also a short medial prong. The winter coat of this 
species of antelope is composed of hollow hairs, which 
are about two inches long : they are very brittle. The 
summer coat is smooth and flexible. The pronghorn is 



40 WESTERN WILD ANIMALS. 

found upon the plains of the far west. It is generally 
captured by rifle shot. It has a great curiosity to know 
the cause of its fright, when disturbed in any way, and 
it is generally by taking advantage of this curiosity which 
causes it to follow up the disturber, that the hunter gets 
near enough to the animal to shoot it. When apprised 
of danger, the antelope looks for the cause, and when it 
sees where it is, advances toward the object by a series 
of half circles about it, until it has learned what it is. 



THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN GOAT. 41 



V. 
THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN GOAT. 



This goat was formerly classed with the goat family. 
It is now classed with the antelopes. It is sometimes 
called the sheep antelope, and the wool-bearing antelope. 

It inhabits the highest and most inaccessible peaks of 
the Rocky mountains, ranging from 40 deg. to 60 deg. 
north latitude. It is the most abundant on the western 
slope of the mountains, and the woody country near the 
coast. In some respects it resembles the nimble, fearless 
cl mber of the Alps, the chamois. It wanders over the 
most precipitous rocks, and springs with great activity 
from crag to crag. In size, it is like that of our ordinary 
sheep : in its general appearance it resembles the Merino 
or Spanish sheep. The wool is fine on many parts of the 
body, but not as long as that of our domestic sheep. Its 
chin is bearded. The outer hair, which is long and 
straight, grows upon the back and upon the top of the 
head : it is fine and silky, and hangs down like that upon 
the cashmir goat. Its fleece is a beautiful white. It 
feeds upon the mosses and grasses which grow upon the 
mountain sides. Its flesh is dry and hard : it has a 
musky odor. It has erect, pcinted horns : they are small 
and smooth, and are jet black : the feet are black. 

Travelers, who more frequently see the big-horn sheep 
of the mountain regions, mistake it for the goat. The 
big-horn live:- in the valleys ; but the goat rarely descends 
to the valleys, and never makes its home there. 



42 WESTERN WILD ANIMALS. 

The Indians make good use of its coat of wool and 
hair, and of the skin. It is difficult for the hunter to 
capture it ; for many times, when he has succeeded in 
shooting one, it has been when the animal has stood upon 
the verge of some precipice, and, on being shot, has 
fallen over it into a deep and inaccessible ravine below. 



THE AMERICAN BISON. 43 

VI. 

THE AMERICAN BISON. 



This animal belongs to the genus Bos, or the Ox family. 
The family is gregarious in its habits, and is found in 
every quarter of the globe, tenanting deep glades of the 
forest, or reaming upon highlands and a " thousand hills." 
Wild oxen have existed in Europe. ^The common or 
domestic oxen, wherever their native home may be, are 
familiar to every one in their structural formation, and 
are useful, directly or indirectly, to all classes of people. 

Of the three bisons described by naturalists, one is 
found in Poland, and is known to us as the auroch ; 
another is found in India, but is not well known by any 
one : the last of the three is the American bison, popu- 
larly, but as improperly, known as the Buffalo. So com- 
mon is this error that but few, in thinking of the buffalo, 
have depicted upon the mind the humpless, maneless 
shoulders of the true buffalo of the east, which, in India, 
has long, smooth horns running backwards and reclining 
towards the neck, and, in Africa, which carries very 
massive horns, that are nearly united on the forehead. 

The bison is the only species of the ox family indi- 
genous to America. 

The original range of the American bison was from 
shore to shore of what is now the United States, with the 
exception of a few limited localities : its southern boun- 
dary is New Mexico, its northern the Columbia and 
Saskatchewan rivers. It now ranges in countless numbers 
and in immense herds over the prairies of the west. 



THE PRAIRIE-DOG. 45 



VII. 

THE PRAIRIE-DOG, 



The Wish-ton-wish, or prairie-dog, as it is popularly 
known, is allied to the marmots, resembling them in its 
physical structure, and in many of its traits. The bur- 
rows which it makes are like those of the common wood- 
chuck. Its name is due to the short yelping sound which 
it utters, and which is so like the bark of a young puppy. 
It is found in great numbers along the course of the 
Missouri and Arkansas rivers, and also near the river 
Platte. In the vicinity of Potter, a station on the Union 
Pacific Railroad, four hundred and thirty-three miles 
west of Omaha, the observing traveler will begin to make 
acquaintance with the prairie-dogs or cayeutes, as the 
Indians call them ; and at about three miles from the 
station is situated the great prairie-dog city, occupying 
several hundred acres, honey-combed by a perfect laby- 
rinth of subterranean burrows. 

Wood says of them : — " The scene presented by one of 
these ' dog towns ' or ' villages,' as the assemblages of 
burrows are called, is most curious, and well repays the 
trouble of approaching without alarming the cautious 
little animals. Fortunately for the traveler, the prairie 
dog is as inquisitive as it is wary, and the indulgence of 
its curiosity often costs the little creature its life. Perched 
on the hillocks, the prairie-dog is able to survey a wide 
extent ol horizon, and as soon as it sees an intruder, it 
gives a sharp yelp of alarm, and dives into its burrow, its 



46 WESTERN WILD ANIMALS. 

little feet knocking together with a ludicrous flourish as 
it disappears. In every direction a similar scene is 
enacted. Warned by the well-known cry, all the prairie- 
dogs within reach repeat the call, and leap into their 
burrows. Their curiosity, however, is irrepressible, and 
scarcely have their feet vanished from sight, when their 
heads are seen cautiously protruded from the burrow, 
and their inquisitive brown eyes sparkle as they examine 
the cause of the disturbance." 

It is difficult to get these animals even after they are 
shot. Tradition says of them that when one has been 
shot at the entrace of the burroAv, those inside draw it 
out of sight and reach. I have seen Indians catch them. 
They shoot them with the arrow, and in such a way as to 
have the arrow point reach through the animal and stick 
in the ground, thus pinning them fast and preventing 
escape on their own part, and likewise preventing escape 
by the help of another dog. 



THE WOOD-CnUCK OR MARMOT. 47 



VIII. 
THE WOOD-CHUCK OR MARMOT. 



The Marmots are found on both continents ; but in 
this country they are commonly called Wood-chucks. 
They are found from Hudson's Bay to South Carolina, 
and west, to the Rocky Mountains. They are about the 
size of an ordinary rabbit, and resemble it in color, being 
blackish or grizzled above, and chestnut red below. 
They are clumsy looking fellows, slow and awkward in 
their movements. The head is broad and flat ; the neck is 
very short ; the legs are short and thick ; the feet are large ; 
the tail is bushy ; the hair is quite soft ; the whiskers are 
long and stout ; the eyes are small and the ears are short ; 
they have rudimentary cheek pouches ; the stomach is 
simple. They are expert excavators, and dig large and 
complicated burrows in the fields, on the sides of hills, 
or under rocks in the woods. The burrows slant up- 
wards, to prevent the entrance of water into them : there 
is usually more than one entrance to a burrow. They 
feed mainly upon vegetables, and are particularly destruc- 
tive to red clover crops. They are very clean animals. 
Though naturally timid, when they find themselves unable 
to escape, they will fight desperately, and, with a dog of 
equal size, with great success. They are sometimes 
called ground hogs. They are gregarious. They fre- 
quently make their incursions upon clover fields, or other 
forbidden grounds, at midday, posting sentinels to warn 
them of danger. This the sentinels do by a shrill whistle : 



48 WESTERK WILD ANIMALS. 

they are very vigilant, and as the sense of hearing is acute, 
they can easily manage an escape. 

They are with little trouble caught in steel traps set at 
the entrance of the burrows. The traps must be con- 
cealed, but need no baiting. The skin is valuable for 
whip-lashes. 



WEASELS. 49 

IX. 

WEASELS. 



The members of this family have very long, slim 
bodies. Their legs and feet are very short. Their five 
toes, which have sharp claws, are short and round. They 
are great climbers. The structure of the teeth is such 
as to fairly rank them among the carnivora. They eat 
small quadrupeds and are specially fond of sucking the 
blood of their victims. They have a gliding, almost 
serpent-like motion, and this, together with the slenderness 
of their bodies, often gives them a chance to steal una- 
w^ares upon animals, which are greatly their superiors in 
size. They generally attack their prey upon the neck or 
head ; and breaking the skull, they drink the blood, and 
then frequently leave it otherwise untouched. When 
they are frightened, or in any way disturbed, they emit a 
very disagreeable odor. Were it not for the value of 
their fur, we would scarcely care to be intimately ac- 
quainted with the offensive and troublesome creatures. 
They are nocturnal in their habits ; a few members of the 
family will sometimes venture out into the light of day 
in search of food. 

" Fine plumage does not make a fine bird," neither 
does the sable nor the mink skin make the weasel family 
a good natured, well mannered class of beings. 



PINE MARTEN. 



The pine marten, first on the list in the weasel family, 
is found in those regions which abound in pine trees. 



50 WESTERN WILD ANIMALS. 

It is frequently called the American Sable, representing, 
as it does, the sables of the old country. It inhabits 
both the old and new world. The sables inhabit Russia, 
Japan, and Northern Asia. Their skins are the most 
valuable of any of the weasel family; the Russian Sable 
being the most valuable of the species. The American 
Sab!e; or Pine Marten, ranks next in value; then the 
Beech Marten follows m the order, and last and least of 
all, the American Fisher. 

The Pine Marten of Hudson's Bay locality is often 
called the Hudson's Bay Sable. It is by nature very 
cautious and timid, and dees not often approach settle- 
ments. Its native locality is the high ground of thick 
pine woods. Dr. Richardson observes that " in America, 
particular races of martens, distinguished by the fineness 
and dark color of their fur, appear to inhabit certain 
rocky districts. The rocky, mountainous, but wooded 
region on the north side of Lake Superior, has long been 
noted for its black and valuable marten skins." It varies 
the most in color, in the same region, of any animal ; 
some are light yellow ; some are dark brown ; and others 
are black. It is distinguished from the Beech or Stone 
INIarten of Europe by the coloring of its throat. The 
former has a yellow throat, the latter a white throat, and 
is sometimes called the White-throated Marten. It feeds 
on small quadrupeds, and is very fond of nuts and honey. 
The Pine Marten is about twenty-eight inches long, in- 
cluding the tail, which is ten inches in length. It is a 
great traveler, but scarcely ever makes a straight track : 
this is eith er quite crooked, or is curcuitous. Because of 
its irregular course, sportsmen and inexperienced hunters 
are apt to think the woods are full of martens, when, in 
fact, there may be but very few of them. It is very 



WEASELS. 51 

essential for the young hunter to learn to distinguish the 
tracks of the animals that he wishes to capture. The 
Mink, Marten, Otter, and Fisher, travel about alike ; 
they make the same motions, and the shape of the tracks 
is very similar. The marten moves along after the fashion 
of a rabbit, only it leaves but two tracks. These tracks 
are about two inches apart, and the one is not exactly in 
front of the other. It springs eighteen or twenty inches 
at a time. Its track is a little larger than that of the 
mink, for its foot, being covered with fur, spreads more. 
They are otherwise alike. 

In sections where there are but few martens, they can 
be followed up, by their tracks, to hollow trees. When 
overtaken, they will hardly ever go into the tree which 
they have climbed, but v/ill go from it into the hollow 
tree. I'his is cunning ; but the hunter can match it by 
his knowledge of the appearance of the timber of a tree 
that is hollow. 

The marten is a great cHmber, and spends much of its 
tim.e on the trunks and amid the branches of trees. It is 
very sprightly in its motions ; its muscular powers, as is 
also true of other weasels, are wonderfully perfected, and 
It is more than a match for any squirrel. It is also a 
silent traveler, and by stealth comes unnoticed upon its 
prey. It delights in robbing nests, taking from them 
eggs, or the young or old birds. It likes, after having 
removed the occupants of a nest, to appropriate it to 
itself, thus securing comfortable quarters, and a good 
chance to watch the birds in nests close by. Sometimes 
it drives a squirrel from its burrow, and inhabits it. In 
the winter it prefers to Hve in the clefts of rocks, or in 
hollow trees and logs. It is very fierce when attacked, or 
even disturbed. When a man approaches a tree where 



53 WESTERN WILD ANIMALS. 

one is secreted, though he may be ignorant of its presence, 
it will come out to fight him. It will even come from the 
farther end of a log or cavity in the tree. It is safe to say 
that it would come forty feet to attack one. On one occasion 
I found a marten in a hollow tree, and thought I would 
stop up the entrance and afterward go and kill it. Hunters 
very often catch them in this way ; but this little fellow 
had no idea of being caught in such a trap : he came out 
to fight me. I then held my gloves in the little door- 
way, while I fixed my gun on a log near by; as I drew 
them out, the marten came too, and looked me in the 
face while I shot him. 

It can be taken in dead falls, set one quarter of a mile 
apart, and can also be taken by the steel trap. It is very 
easily caught. When steel traps are used, the hunter 
makes what he calls marten trails ; a track that it might 
take two or three days to follow round. The traps are 
set on this line. A coop should be niade to put the trap 
in; the bait should be put in the coop, beyond the trap. 
Hollow logs and trees are excellent places for trapping. 
Any kind of meat, especially if bloody, is good for bait ; 
the more bloody the meat, the better the marten likes it. 
The musk of muskrat is good bait ; the heads of birds 
and fishes is very good. The methods used for trapping 
mink are further discriptive of marten catching. 

It is a very handsome animal, bright and sprightly, and 
would make a very choice pet if it could be tamed ; but 
it cannot. 

THE MINK. 

The northern parts of Europe, Asia, and Africa are 
the homes of this handsome little creature. Its fur, 
especially in the United States, is very valuable. It is 
more carnivorous than the marten, its dentition being 



WEASELS. 53 

somewhat different. It is smaller, more slender, and 
more uniform in color than the marten. The northern 
species bears the darkest, finest fur. Its color is a dark 
brown, with a strip along the back of a deeper shade ; it 
has a patch of white on the under jaw. It is probable 
that the climate affects the color of the mink in different 
localities. In size mink vary from thirteen to eighteen 
inches from the nose to the base of the tail. The tail 
measures from eight to ten inches in length ; its color is 
nearly black : it is also quite bushy. Mink are larger in 
their north-western homes than any where else. The feet 
are slightly webbed, thus adapting the animal to the water, 
which it frequents. It is an excellent swimmer and diver, 
but it does not stay long in the water. Hunters look for 
mink along the banks of streams. It is a good runner, but 
does not climb like the marten. It is a great rambler, 
except in the breeding season, which commences about 
the last of May. The mother hides her four, five or six 
young ones until they are half grown ; for the males of 
the family, inhabiting the same localities, like to destroy 
them. 

Its food consists of fish, frogs, and birds; it is specially 
fond of speckled trout. 

It is a good plan to catch mink before it is in the best 
condition, as it is much easier caught, and will be more 
uniform in color. In the Lake Superior regions it is in 
its best condition about the 28th of October, in southern 
Wisconsin not before the latter part of November. Two 
can be caught easier before they are prime, than one 
afterwards. They may be caught in box traps, and kept 
and cared for until such time as the hunter may choose to 
kill them. They are usually caught by the steel trap, set 
either on the land or in the water. Sometimes a hole is 



5i WESTERY WILD ANIMALS. 

dug in the snow, three sides of which are barricaded ; the 
trap is set at the entrance of the hole; the bait is put in 
it, beyond the trap. This little barricade, or coop, 
should be covered over with evergreen boughs, to 
keep out snow and also other stuff that in falling might 
spring the trap. The trap itself should be concealed 
by a covering of leaves ; rotten vegetation makes a very 
good covering. The flesh of the muskrat, and its musk 
will attract the mink for a long distance ; fish oil is good 
bait. This oil is obtained by the decomposition of the 
fish, which is accomplished by exposure to the sunshhie. 
Trappers often set the trap in the entrance to one of 
their burrows, or, if such a hole cannot be found, they 
make one by the side of a root, or stump, or on a bank. 
It must be nicely set ; as the animal is suspicious of what 
is new and strange. The trap may be set in water, 
covered about two inches by it ; the bait is put on a stick 
about eight inches beyond the trap, to oblige the animal 
to walk over it. The mink likes to step out upon fallen 
timber which lies over, or one end of which lies in the 
water ; because from such a pcint it can watch and dive 
for its fmny prey. The trap may be set in a hole made 
in the end of such a log, or put upon it and covered with 
the moss that so frequently gathers upon such places ; 
the bait is then put beyond the trap. Though the animal 
may not be hungry, it Avill go to smell of the meat, and 
thus decide its fate. 

THE FISHER. 

This member of the weasel family, which is sometimes 
called Pekan, inhabits many sections of the United 
States, from North Carolina, on the south, to the Great 
Slave Lake on the north, and across the continent, from 
shore to shore. It is common in New York, Pennsylvania, 



WEASELS. 55 

and the Lake Superior mineral regions. It lives mainl}^ 
in damp localities, and in humid forests bordering water. 

It is a carnivorous digitigrade, measuring about two 
feet in length, except the tail, which measures fifteen 
inches. It weighs from eight to twelve pounds. In color 
it is blackish, with a greyish tinge about the head and 
shoulders. Some are brown, and some have a white spot 
on the throat. In general its appearance is fox-like, having 
a long head and a pointed muzzle. It is the most ferocious 
member of its family. It preys upon birds and small quad- 
rupeds, and, like the mink, it is often seen on the end of a 
fog lying over the water, ready to catch the nsh as they 
swim along. We do not know that it receives its name from 
any special liking to fish food : the name is more likely 
4o have been given it because it delights in stealing fish 
bait set for martens. 

It escapes their traps. It must be severely wounded 
to be caught. The hunter, therefore, sets stouter traps, 
and makes heavier dead-falls for it than he does for the 
marten. It is easily caught in traps. The best and the 
easiest method is to set fisher traps and marten traps in 
lines near each other, taking the lower ground for the 
former. These two animals are in many respects very 
similar. They inhabit the same localities ; but the fisher 
travels on lower ground, and in straight lines. Traps for 
the fisher are set in hollow logs, or in barricaded places, 
such as have already been described, but the barricade 
and the entrance to it must be larger than for the marten 
or the mmk. The trap must be fastened, by a wedge or 
stake, into a tree. It is an excellent plan to draw a trail 
of the musk of the muskrat, mixed with fish oil, to 
attract the attention of the animal. This scent may be 
put in a deer's skin bag, which has been pierced in a 



56 WESTERN WILD ANIMALS. 

number of places with an awl. The fur is generally sent 
to England. 

THE BADGER. 

By many good authorities this animal is placed in the 
weasel family ; although in some respects it resembles the 
bears. Its dentition is not like that of the ursine family. 
It is an omnivorous plantigrade. Like others of the 
mustelidoe, or weasels, it feeds upon small quadrupeds, 
and it also eats roots and fruits ; the latter is said to be 
its choice of food-stuffs. It plunders the nests of the 
wild bee, eating with evident delight the store of honey, 
fearless of the sting of the bees. The structure of the 
skin is such as to render it impervious to the attacks of 
the little sharp-shooters, and it will seem as much at ease 
in the midst of the besieged army, as does the bee-tamer 
surrounded by his stupefied throng. 

Its feet are five toed, and are well adapted to burrow- 
ing : the powerful claws are deep set in the flesh : the 
claws of the fore feet are long and curved. The muscles 
of the legs are wonderfully developed. With the fore 
feet it digs rapidly, and can dig very deep ; with the 
hind feet it can as effectually fling the dirt. It 
frequents deep woods, where it digs its burrows, and in 
which it sleeps during the day. The burrow is curiously 
and conveniently constructed. It has but one entrance, 
but it has several apartments, the innermost one of 
which is circular. The animal lines these apartments 
with grass, or other soft material. It spends its days 
alone, a solitary creature. It is cleanly, timid, and inof- 
fensive, but, if attacked, becomies very fierce in self- 
defense. If attacked when in its burrow, it will fling 
dirt in the face of its invader, and frequently with such 
vigor as to make very sure its own defense. 



WEASELS. 57 

It is slow and clumsy in its motions, and in this 
respect resembles the bears more than the weasels. Its 
skin is very tough : it is valuable in commerce : it makes 
excellent pistol-holsters. The hair is used in various 
ways. In color it is a greyish brown, a curious intermix- 
ture of brown, white, and black. In the summer the 
color is more of a yellowish brown. The winter fur is 
thick and handsome ; it measures about three inches in 
length. The average length of the badger is two feet 
and a half; its height at the shoulders is eleven inches. 
The European species is the most important in the fur 
trade, furnishing a large majority of the skins which are 
annually sold. 

The badger can be caught in the steel trap, set at the 
entrance to its burrow. It should be carefully concealed, 
else the animal will cunningly avoid the suspicious looking 
thing. It may be baited with fresh fish, or with salt cod-fish. 
If the latter is used, it should be roasted, to give it a strong 
smell. Wood, in his Mammalia, gives an instance to 
prove that the badger is not as stupid as it is generally 
supposed to be. He says, " One of these animals has 
been known to set at defiance all the traps that were 
intended for its capture, and to devour the baits without 
suffering for its temerity. On one occasion the animal 
was watched out of the burrow, and a number of traps 
set round the orifice, so that its capture seemed tolerably 
certain. But when the badger returned to its domicile, 
it set at naught all the devices of the enemy, and by dint 
of jumping over some of the traps, and rolling over 
others, gained its home in safety." I have known them 
to elude the jaws of the trap by covering them over with 
dirt, putting on so much that it could not spring when 
stepped upon. 



o8 WESTERN WILD ANIMALS. 

THE OTTER. 

The otter is the aquatic representative of the v/easel 
family. Many of the weasels resort to the water; but 
none are so thoroughly at home in it, and none so poorly 
adapted to spend its time continuously upon the land. It 
bears some marked resemblance to the seals. There are 
several species, wiiich are distributed quite extensively 
over the globe. The two species more specially inter- 
esting to the American trapper are the Canada, or Amer- 
ican Otter, and the California Otter. The range of the 
former is bounded on the north by the Arctic ocean, on 
the east by the Atlantic, south by the Gulf of Mexico, 
and on the west, by the Pacific ocean. 

At a little distance it presents the appearance of a very 
large mink. The American Otter measures four and a 
half feet from the nose to the tip of the tail. It weighs 
from twenty to twenty-five pounds. The shape of the 
head differs considerably from the other members of its 
family, beirg very broad and flat above, the outline of the 
muzzle being round. The eyes are small, and set far 
forward, and are provided with a nicitating membrane; 
the lips are large and fleshy, and are provided with strong 
whiskers; the tongue is rough; the ears are short and 
round ; the teeth are very strong, pointed, and sha-rp ; 
the fur is smooth ; the under fur serves as a protection 
from the extremity of the weather, and together with the 
long, glossy hairs constituting the outer fur, indicates the 
aquatic habits of the animal. The color of the fur is 
a bright, rich brown, varying somewhat with the locality, 
and the light in which it is viewed; the color on the 
upper side is a dark, glossy brown, and on the und(n' side 
is much lighter. The sides of the head and throat are 



^VEASELS. 50 

covered with a dusky white fur. The tips of the inner 
fur are brown, while the base is grey. 

When on the land it is plantigrade, and is a very 
awkward, clumsy traveler. The toes are webbed and 
spreading ; the legs are strong, and are so constructed as to 
enable the animal to move them in almost every direc- 
tion. The tail, which serves as a rudder, is long, and 
depressed at the tip, stout and muscular at the base. 
The otter is a very graceful and rapid swimmer, swim- 
ming at every depth with perfect ease. It glides along 
so quietly that when in deep water it scarcely moves the 
surface by a ripple. A\ hen in deep water its course 
may be determined by the bubbles of air, which it conies 
to the surface to exchange for fresh air. It is persistent 
in pursuing its prey ; its slim body gives it great advan- 
tage in following through every turn and winding way. 
It sw^ims in clear and rapid streams, the homes of its 
favorite prey, the speckled trout. 

The otter selects the finest fish, sometimes bringing to 
the shore, or upon some rock which rises above the sur- 
face, or to some half sunken log several fish at a time. 
In eating them it begins by crushing the head between 
its teeth ; it then eats the flesh of the body of the fish. 
Some affirm that the otter seldom eats any part but the 
head ; others that it never eats the head nor tail of 
the fish. My own observation leads me to believe 
that the degree of hunger, and the kind of fish 
caught are the influences controlling the amount and 
parts of fish devoured by the otter. I have never seen 
any part of the speckled trout left, nor any part of any 
fish, except the heads of bass ; but I have often seen 
whole fish left, and I know that the otter often brings up 
more fish than it even attempts to eat. It is more greedy 



60 WESTERN WILD ANIMALS. 

than fastidious. Like the drunkard, whose appetite re- 
quired more than his constitution could bear, the otter's 
greed demands more than enough to satisfy its hunger. 
Two years ago, while trapping mink in the Lake Superior 
regions, I one day saw more than a bushel of bass heads 
lying on the bank, which otter had left there, and which 
the mink were carrying away. 

It is a great rambler. It will sometimes be gone for 
days from its home. It finds along the banks of streams 
knolls, or high places, which are inclined towards the 
water. At all of these places it stops and plays ; it rolls 
and tumbles about upon them. These high banks are 
called "otter slides." They generally project into the 
streams, and are near deep water, where fish are abun- 
dant. The animal slides from these to procure its food, 
and it is probable that from such points the young 
otter learns to slide so gracefully and noislessly into the 
water. Certain it is, that it does at some time acquire 
both a noiseless and graceful descent into the water. When 
it comes onto a slide from the water, it does not come 
directly upon the slide, but approaches from one side of 
it where ^he water is shallow and the ground low. It 
seldom travels any great distance on land. The slides 
are almost always located on the bends of streams, and 
it will sometimes go from one slide to the next one by 
land. The paths which the animals make hunters call 
otter portages. The otter is so sly that if a person goes 
onto one of its slides, or portages, it will leave it, and 
will frequently abandon it entirely. They travel in 
groups of three six, or seven, but generally in groups of 
three, of four, or of five. They will go from one to two 
miles per day, stopping at their slides for play spells, 
unless these places have been disturbed. They will 



WBASELS. 61 

frequently portage from the head of one stream to the 
head of another. I have known them to do so when the 
streams were two or three miles apart. The otter's track 
is very much like that made by the fisher; but it may be 
distinguished from the fisher's track by this, that it 
frequently slides along for a ways, sometimes for six or 
eight feet. The otter also leaves what is called a " seal," 
or an impression of the sole of the foot, by which its 
track may be distinguished from that of any other animal. 

It burrows in banks, or hides in natural crevices. It 
will sometimes steal muskrat burrows. 

As a rule, it is unadvisable to shoot fur-bearing animals ; 
because it injures the fur. The otter and all other 
aquatic animals are almost invariably lost if killed by 
shot ; for they will then sink. 

The otter secretes a strongly fetid substance, and may 
therefore be readily tracked by other animals. Otter 
hounds are frequently used for catching them. 

The steel trap is the best instrument of capture for 
this animal. A great many trappers set their traps on the 
land, counting the slides the best places for them. I do 
not recommend this course. For the practical trapper 
it is a waste of every expenditure of effort. It is true, 
ther« may be cases when it is better to set the trap on the 
land, instead of in the water; but it is not often the case. 

When I first went into the Lake Superior regions for 
trapping, some of the men, whom I found there, always 
set their otter traps on the land ; but I at one time found 
that I had caught fourteen by water trapping while one 
of the men had been waiting for a single catch. When 
a trap has been set on land, the scent of man will not 
leave the vicinity for days, and so long as the otter dis- 
covers this scent, it will not approach close to it, and if 



62 WESTERN WILD ANIMALS. 

it has been several times towards the spot, is quite apt to 
abandon the place entirely. Besides, if the animal were 
not so afraid of man's tracks, it were still an unadvisable 
course to pursue ; for it is frequently gone from its home 
for a week at a time. The trapper, knowing this, must 
not be surprised if his trap is not sprung for several days, 
and should remember that it is at best a slow process. 
No bait is needed for the trap, and no scent should be 
left. There is no scent left if the trap is put under 
water, and many times the animal may be caught within 
an hour after the trap is set. The trap should be set 
near a slide, on one of the paths by which it approaches 
a slide. It should be covered by four inches of water* 
enough to keep off the muskrat. It should also be set 
about four inches to one side of the center of the path ; 
because the leo:s of the otter spread out so far from the 
sides of the body that it makes a wide path, and the 
tracks of the feet are on the edges of the path. If the 
trap is set on the center of the path, the body of the 
animal passes upon it without injury, but if to one side, 
as stated above, the trap is sprung and the feet caught. 
The trap should be carefully covered, to prevent sus- 
picion. 



THE 8KUJSK. 68 

X. 

THE SKUNK. 



Five species of the skunk are found in North America ; 
the White-backed, the Long-tailed, the California, the 
Little Striped, and the common skunk of the United 
States. The skunk is found east of the Missouri plains, 
and from Hudson's Bay to Texas. This animal bears 
many of the typical characteristics of the mustelidas or 
weasel family, having an elongated body, pointed, naked 
nose, fossorial feet. The claws of the fore feet are long; 
the soles are naked; the tail is long and bushy ; there 
are five closely united toes. It is essentially plantigrade, 
and walks with the back much arched, and with the tail 
dragging, except when surprised, when it erects the tail. 
The head is small ; the eyes are small but piercing ; the 
ears are short and rounded. It measures from sixteen to 
twenty inches in length, the tail being thirteen or fourteen 
inches additional. The prevailing color is black and 
v/hite, or black with narrow white lines on the forehead, 
a broad triangular patch on the nape, continuous with a 
narrow line on each side of .the back; the tail and tuft is 
white. Of the teeth there are six incisors, and two canine 
teeth in each jaw, eight molars in the upper, and ten in 
the lower jaw. 

It is nocturnal in its habits, and during the summer 
months it feeds upon beetles, grasshoppers, crickets, and 
other small animals, upon eggs, upon green corn and 
other vegetable food. It preys upon hens and chickens, 



64 WESTERN WILD ANIMALS. 

but not so frequently as does the mink or the weaseh It 
burrows from December to the middle of February : it 
carries with it no winter stores. It is fat when it retires 
to its burrow, and remains dull and inactive while there? 
but cannot properly be said to hybernate. Its flesh is 
white, fat, and when properly skinned is not tainted. 
The Indians eat it. Though slow in its movements, and 
weak and timid, it is by no means defenseless. It fur- 
nishes the staple fur in Poland, and is therefore valued 
by the Polanders ; but it is the most thoroughly detested 
animal in the United States, and as the wit has well 
said, it is literally in " worse odor " than any other animal 
known. Its fetid secretion is its sure defense against 
any molestation, and there are few who would thank us 
to tell them what everyone already knows of this dis- 
gusting, all-permeating, ever-penetrating substance. The 
skunk is, nevertheless, a very cleanly animal ; as it never 
allows its own fur to become soiled by its secretion, nor 
does it emit it upon its fellow skunks. 

It may be taken in traps. These traps, which should 
be loosely covered with grass or other soft stuff, may be 
baited with pieces cf meat scattered about it. The 
traps should be set on one of its paths where it searches 
for food, or enters a burrow. It may be taken by the 
snare and spring pole. It seldom emits its fetid secretion 
until the hunter attempts to kill it. If the animal is im- 
mersed in water no scent will be emitted. 



THE WOLVERINE. 65 



XL 
THE WOLVERINE. 



The Wolverine or Glutton, as it is L equently called, is a 
connecting link between the weasel and the bear families. 
It resembles the former in its dentition, the latter in its 
plantigrade character. In many of its habits it resembles 
the martens. The glutton and the wolverine were once 
supposed to be distinct species, the glutton inhabiting 
portions of the Old World, and the wolverine 
of the New World. They are now regarded as 
belonging to the same species; the differences between 
them are doubtless the result of climatic influences. It 
is a native of the high northern latitudes of Europe and 
Asia, and of the cold regions of America. Its American 
home extends as far south as the mountains of Massa- 
chusetts. It is most abundant in the Rocky Mountains 
near the Arctic circle, and in the west is found as far south 
as Great Salt Lake ; it has been occasionally found in 
northern New York. 

It has thirty eight teeth, which are peculiarly preda- 
ceous in their character. It is weasel-like, as its teeth 
would indicate, in its choice of food stuffs. It feeds 
upon small quadrupeds ; but being larger than some 
"mustelidifi, and more voracious, it seeks larger prey than 
weasels do. It is a persistent foe to the beaver during 
the summer months. It feeds upon the carcases of 
r.nimals which it has not killed. Early writers of the 
Eastern Continent in describing this animal put its 

5 



6G WESTERN WILD ANUIALS. 

strength, voracity, and cunning in the superlative degree. 
The gluttony which they attribute to it gave it the name 
glutton. It is now believed by those whose practical 
knowledge of this animal should be accepted as impor 
tant, that this characteristic was exaggerated. It is not 
probable that by force of a natural apetite, or by dint of 
agility and cunning, it pounces upon deer and other large 
game, or that it plunges into water in search of game ; 
but it may, and probably does steal upon the deer asleep, 
or attack fawns or feeble animals, and destroy its victim 
as the weasel does when it attacks a hare, by striking 
at the blood vessels of the throat. Upon this point all 
writers and hunters agree, that the wolverine is very 
annoying, because it will rob traps. It has been known 
to rifle the marten hunter's path round a line of traps 
extending upwards of fifty miles. In most cases it only, 
disturbs the traps by devouring the bait. It does not 
like the marten, but often tears it to pieces and conceals 
it near by : the keen scented fox, greedy for such game, 
follows up the track. It is therefore well to set fox traps 
near the marten traps. The wolverine delights in plun- 
dering the hunter's "caches " of provisions, eating the 
meat and scattering the vegetables. The Indians, 
because of its destructiveness, call it the devil. 

It is active all winter, nocturnal in its habits, and 
spends the day in holes and caves. It fights resolutely, 
and is more than a match for a very large dog. 

The general contour of the body is like that of the 
bear. It is partially plantigrade ; its track resembles 
that of a bear's cub ; its gait is slow, but what it might 
lose by this defect it gains by its persistent, steady pace. 
It measures two and one half feet, exclusive of the tail, 
which is about eight inches long ; the tail is bushy. It is 



THE WOLVERINE. 67 

fifteen inches high at the shoulders. The width of the 
hind foot is four inches ; there are five deeply divided 
toes ; the claws are long, sharp, and curved ; these are 
sometimes worn by the Indians as ornaments. The eyes 
are small, of a dark brown color. The general color of 
the fur is a very dark brown on the back, changing into 
black on the limbs. There are bands of lighter brown 
passing from the neck to the flanks and meeting at the 
tail, and also one crossing the forehead from ear to ear. 
The long fur is fine and glossy, and is quite valuable. It 
is used for sleigh robes. The weight of the animal is 
from twenty to thirty pounds. 

Hunters generally set poison for it. It can be caught 
in the steel trap, and in dead-falls ; the latter should be 
very heavy. In wolverine countries every tenth trap on 
a marten line should be set for wolverines. 



68 WESTERN WILD ANIMALS. 



xir. 

THE BEAR FAMILY. 



This family, as to point of numbers, is not numerous ; 
but the individual members of it are notably large. 
They differ from the typical carnivora in several respects ; 
they have massive limbs and a heavy gait, and depend 
less upon animal than upon vegetable food. A full grown 
bear of the majority of the species generally weighs 
several hundred pounds. The extremes in weight are 
twelve hundred, and less than one hundred pounds: the 
former designates the weight of the Polar Bear, the latter 
that of the Bornean Bear. 

Bears are not very aggressive, and with a few rare 
exceptions, are singularly harmless. Ignorance of this 
fact is not bliss to the many who would not for their lives 
camp out a night in or near woods where bears were 
supposed to be. They rarely attack a man if undisturbed 
by him. Many of them are timid, and may be quite 
easily frightened off when one has come unexpectedly upon 
a man's track. A partner of mine once frightened an 
infuriated bear, from which he had just taken her two 
cubs, by making a lunge at her with an open umbrella. 
She ran off in hot haste, and was not seen again. Chil- 
dren are taught by some one a most pernicious fear of 
bears, thousands of whom never see one uncaged, and 
yet in after years they remember very distinctly their 
childish fears of them. They recall with a smile the 
*' Let's play the bears are going to eat us up," and with 



THE BE A R FAMIL Y. 69 

indignation that when night came on, or they were shut 
up in some dark closet for being " so naughty," they 
scarcely dared to move a muscle, or the eyes from the 
opposite wall where the veritable bear they had heard so 
much about, sat like some demon watching them, and 
just ready to devour them. Naughty bears do not eat 
naughty children now ; nor do the wild bears of the 
woods eat the big babes of the wood who know how to 
use traps and rifles. The Scandinavian aphorism, " A 
bear has the strength of ten men and the sense of 
twelve," need not frighten the woodsman, but should 
teach him that he needs to learn how to manage this 
creature. An infuriated bear is a formidable antagonist. 
Bears belong to the order omnivora. Destitute of the 
powers which distinguish the carnivora, they still exhibit 
the same natural adaptation of endowments and wants. 
With a few exceptions they content themselves with a 
vegetable diet, living upon fruits, nuts, and succulent vege- 
tables ; they are almost proverbially fond of honey. 
They are very persistent, and cunning too, in their efforts 
to secure bees' nests. They tear the bark from old logs 
to get snails and insects therein secreted ; they tear up old 
logs to get the insects and worms lying underneath; 
they gnaw into old stubs, dig holes in the ground in 
search of wasps' and hornets' nests. They are very 
fond of fish, and have still greater relish for skunk 
cabbage. Scarcely any other animal will eat this cabbage. 
They eat wild or pigeon cherries with the greatest 
delight. All the bears eat animal food ; but they do not 
slay their victims by attacking them in some vital part, as 
do those more strictly carnivorous animals ; but they hug 
or tear them to death. One of the endowments which 
adapts them so well to their food-hunting is their planti- 



70 WESTER^"- WILD ANIMALS. 

grade structure. Their massive paws easily crush small 
animals upon which they feed ; the claws, which are 
more tractile, make, like the canine teeth of the lion, the 
best instruments for tearing the flesh of animals, and 
make good excavators of roots, of which they are fond. 
Because of the large surface covered by their feet when 
placed upon the ground, they are capable of erecting 
themselves on their hind feet, and of supporting them- 
selves with the greatest ease in an erect position. By 
this means they are enabled to gather nuts and berries. 
They are excellent climbers. The feet are five toed. 
The vegetarian character of these animals is indicated in 
part by the dentition ; the molars have tuberculous 
crowns. They have twelve incisors, six on the upper 
jaw, and six on the lovrer. 

Bears are nocturnal in their habits. They hybernate. 
During the fall their favorite food stuffs are the most 
abundant ; the bears partaking greedily of them become 
very fat ; the honey, which they delight most of all to eat, 
like other sacharine substances, is a great fat producer, 
and containing so much carbon as it does is a great heat 
producer. As people who are in crowded assemblies, in 
poorly ventilated rooms, become stupid in proportion to 
the amount of carbon which they inhale, so do bears fit 
themselves most thoroughly for their lethargic state by 
the -carbonized food which they have eaten. They are 
careful to make warm beds for themselves of dried 
leaves or small twigs ; or they find a shelter under some 
rocks, or by the roots of some tree. The hunter says of 
the bear, that he goes into his burrow *' full fat," and 
comes out "full fat." This is the case. He comes 
out as fat as when he begun his hybernation ; but he 
becomes rapidly lean when he begins to travel in the 




< 



« 

\ w 



^'Wiiiiiir' 



THE BEAR FAMIL Y. 71 

spring. A curious phenomena takes place in the diges- 
tive organs when the bear lies down to his long sleep, 
which prevents any injurious effects from coming upon 
the stomach in its long state of inactivity. In the sum- 
mer bears live in some burnt district, in thick timber, 
among fallen trees, or blackberry brush. On the frontiers 
they frequently depredate the pastures and barn-yards. 
They will climb any kind of tree large enough to support 
them. " Bear-baiting " with mastiffs was formerly a royal 
amusement in England. 

They generally bear two young ones in February or 
March. The mother hides her cubs until they are large 
enough to follow her : they remain with her until the 
following spring. 

Bears differ from each other more than the members 
of almost all other families ; because their range of 
country is greater. They are found in the three zones ; 
those of the torrid and those of the frigid zones are as 
perfectly adapted to the climatic extremes as are those 
of the temperate zones to their intermediate condition. 
They are found on both continents. The American 
Black Bear and the Grizzley Bear are the most conspic- 
uous of the several species found here. • 

BLACK BEAR. 

The Musquaw or Black Bear is the common bear of 
America. "It inhabits," says Dr. Richardson, "every 
wooded district of the American continent from the 
Atlantic to the Pacific, and from Carolina to the shores 
of the Arctic Sea." It receives its common name from 
the color of its handsome glossy fur. This fur and the 
skin and the fat of the animal are in so great request 
that its numbers have been greatly reduced. Like other 



72 WESTERN WILD ANIMALS. 

predaceous animals it has been hunted as a nuisance, and 
driven away from thickly settled localities. The vast 
forests which have never yet echoed to the sound of the 
pioneer's axe or rifle, sparsely settled regions, and moun- 
tain ranges are the places of its abode. They will con- 
tinue to be; but as ''westward the star of empire takes 
its way," and as men are constantly leaving old homes for 
other and newer ones, so will the Black Bear move on 
before the civilizers of new and unknown lands. 

It is closely allied in its habits to the common Brown 
Bear of Europe, but is less fierce and sanguinary. Its 
weight is from two hundred to four hundred pounds. It 
rarely attacks a man unless provoked, save in the case of 
a female with cubs, the retreat of which she is solicitous 
to recover. The females with young secrete themselves 
so carefully that hunters scarcely ever discover a preg- 
nant bear. The bear leaves no track by which the 
hunter can tell exactly where it may be found ; but there 
are various signs in the woods by which he can tell about 
where it is, such as rolling logs, gnawed trees, and in the 
fruit season brush piles. Hunters can tell if a bear is in 
the hollow of a tree by the marks it leaves upon the 
bark of the trunk. In ascending it leaves only the punc- 
ture of the claws; in descending it makes long scratches. 
Bears climb trees to " lap," as the hu.nter says, by which 
he means that they draw in boughs to get the fruit. 

Bears are often hunted with dogs. This practice is 
ill-advised, because often fraught with so much danger. 
When a dog is trained to bear hunting, it enjoys it. The 
hunter should train his dog to attack the bear from the 
rear, and to catch it by the hind leg ; else, if the dog 
rushes upon it from the front, the bear will raise itself 
upon its haunches, and its best implements of warfare, 



THE BEAR *FAMIL Y. 73 

the fere feet, are free and ready for combat. A bear, 
when long worried by a dog, will climb a tree if possible. 
Sometimes it will come dovrn from the tree, run a ways 
and " tree " again. 

Horses are almost useless in the bear chase, as it is 
difficult to train them for it, and unless they are well 
trained their fear lays them at the feet of the bear, and 
leaves the rider in an almost defenseless condition. 
When the bear is wounded or terribly frightened, it fights 
with desperation, and nothing but rifle shot checks its 
fury. By whatever means a bear is captured, it is im- 
peritive that the hunter understand himself before he 
attempts to carry off his prize. Many times when the 
animal is very near its death, hunters have approached 
their game with confidence, but have found when it was 
too late to save themselves that the bear was not dead, 
only dying, and with the last agonies of death it has 
turned upon the hunters and killed them. The last 
struggles are the most desp^ate ones. For the sportsman 
such hunts may do ; but for the practical woodsman there 
are better methods. 

The easiest v/ay to catch the bear is by a trap. Steel 
traps are used effectually, and as described by Newhouse ; 
" In trapping for bears a place should be selected where 
three sides of an enclosure can be secured against the 
entrance of the animal, and one side left open. The 
experienced hunter usually selects a spot where one log 
has fallen across another, making a pen in a V shape. 
The bait is placed at the angle, and the trap at the 
entrance in such a situation that the bear has to pass 
over it to get at the bait. The trap should be covered 
with moss or leaves. Some think it best to put a small 
stick under the pan, strong enough to prevent the smaller 



74 WESTEBN WILD ANIMALS. 

animals, such as the racoon and skunk, from springing 
the trap, but not so stiff as to support the heavy foot of the 
bear. The chain of the trap should be fastened to a clog." 
I would put a small stick over the first spring across 
the trap. The bear will step over this stick ; because it 
will step into the lowest place in the track. The t^ap 
should be put on one side of the center of the entrance ; 
the dirt should be dug away so that the pan of the trap 
shall be the lowest spot in the path to the bait. It is 
best to leave several pieces of bait ; if the trap is not 
touched the first time it v.'iil surely be at another time. 
The clog for the trap should weigh thirty pounds. The 
chain should be short; because the bear in attempting 
to extricate itself from the trap, swings its foot against a 
tree or log, in order to break the trap ; if the chain is 
short the force of the svv'ing of the foot is broken. A 
bear in advancing upon an antagonist rears itself upon 
its hind feet, and v/alks with the body erect, the fore 
paws ready for use as soon as within reach of the foe. 
It will sometimes walk backwards with the body erected. 
On one occasion a bear got away from me, and carried 
off my trap, walking backwards as she went from me. 
The clog was twelve feet long, five inches thick at one 
end and seven at the other. It was a dry maple pole, 
and about eighteen inches of it was ])ut through the ring of 
the trap chain. The bear was going through a wind- 
fall ; the timber there had been burned over, and the 
wind had blown down what trees were left standing. 
These trees and logs were lying crosswise in every direc- 
tion. The clog would catch into the fallen timber as she 
went along; to avoid this she lifted her fore foot and 
held the trap in her mouth. She walked backwards 
doubtless to preserve her equilibrium ; for had she 
attempted to walk forwards the weight would have pulled 



^^%i'S\ 




THE DEAR FAMILY. 75 

her down. She stepped very accurately, and did not 
once stumble against any log. 

All things considered, the log trap is the best for bear 
catching. It saves hard labor in carrying traps through 
the woods, obviates the trouble and fatigue often 
occasioned by hunting the lost bear and the lost trap. 
The log-trap is very seldom sprung by any other animal, 
and is usually a very certain catch for the bear. It is 
easily made ; it lasts the hunter for several years, should 
he hunt on the same ground for so long a time ; the bear 
is not afraid of it, and is not injured by it when entrapped. 
The bear is not afraid, as some suppose, of newly chopped 
timber. The trap should be made of hard wood. If tama- 
rack, spruce, or hemlock is used, the logs should be ten 
inches in diameter ; if it is made of birch, maple or hard 
wood, seven or eight inches is enough. The inside measure- 
ment should be six by two and a half feet ; the height 
should be two feet. When baited and opened, ready for 
the entrance of his bearship, there should be an opening 
of about twenty inches. Two men can make one in four 
hours, and easier than they can carry a steel trap ten or 
twelve miles, as the case may be. The log trap, with its 
posts, cross-bar, lever, spindle, and hook are illustrate4 
in the preceding cut. 

Any kind of meat may be used for bait. Beaver's 
flesh, venison, and mud turtles are very good ; all kinds 
of fish are also good. Fish-oil draws them well, and 
honey has a still better effect in luring them to a trap. 

GRIZZLY BEAR. 

Old Grizzly is the most savage of all his race. He is 
a native of the Rocky Mountains, where he roams at 
will, taking his march as far north as 6i deg., and south- 



76 WESTERN WILD ANIMALS. 

ward to Mexico. He is to the American farmer what 
the Bengal Tiger is to Hindostan, or the lion to that of 
Central Africa. He is to be feared. Animals which we 
would not dare to approach fall prostrate before him, and 
will flee, as if for their lives, from the scent of one of 
them, whether it be alive or dead. But man is the 
monarch of all terrestrial creatures, and even this one is 
not without an innate dread of humanity. 

Wood, in his ** Mammalia," says that *' A man who was 
engaged in duck-shooting, and whose gun was only 
loaded with shot, was suddenly alarmed at seeing a 
Grizzly Bear cantering toward him, having clearly made 
up his mind to attack him. For a moment the old man 
was in despair, but his presence of mind soon returned, 
and he made his escape in a very ingenious manner. 
Plucking some of the light fibers from his rough coat, he 
threw them in the air, in order to ascertain the direction 
of the wind, and then moved to one side, so as to cause 
the wind to blow from himself towards the advancing 
foe. As soon as the bear perceived the strange scent 
it stopped, sat upon its hind legs, wavered, and finally 
made off, leaving its intended prey master of the field." 

He is morose, indomitable, and very tenacious of life. 
When wounded he becomes a dreadful antagonist. 
Among the native tribes that dwell in the northern por- 
tions of America, the possession of a necklace formed 
from the claws of the grizzly bear is considered an 
enviable mark of distinction. No one is permitted to 
wear such an ornament but the slayer of the animal, 
" So largely is this mark of distinction prized that the 
Indian who has achieved such dignity can hardly be 
induced to part with his valued ornament by any remu- 
neration that can be offered." 



THE BEAR FAMIL Y. 77 

The older males often come from their burrows in the 
winter in search of food ; all the others hybernate through 
the season. The bears of this species are expert 
climbers, though many have supposed that this was not the 
case. It is said that men have been saved from the death- 
dealing clutches of the grizzly bear, when resistance or 
escape would be futile, by feigning death. This bear 
is addicted to the habit of burying his prey. He will 
dig deep holes for his victim, and cover it with grass or 
leaves, and go off satisfied with his work, and will not at 
once return to the spot. Men have suffered themselves 
to be buried by one of these rough creatures, and have 
afterwards escaped in safety. 

Lewis and Clark, who discovered this bear, give the 
measurement of one of them as nine feet from the nose 
to the tail. His claws are wonderfully strong and very 
sharp; they are sharp on the edges, like a chisel, and 
thus serve the purpose of a knife ; but they are not 
sharp at the point to serve as an awl, or other instrument 
for boring. They measure about five inches in length ; 
they are quite crooked. The paws are no less a wonder 
for power and size. The fore paws are strong enough to 
tear to pieces a very large animal, and the hind paws to 
squeeze the same to death. The fore foot of a full grown 
adult is nine inches long ; the hind foot measures 
eighteen inches, the claws included ; the breadth of the 
hind foot is seven inches. The tail is short, and lost in 
the shaggy hair. The line of its forehead and muzzle is 
straighter than in any other species. The average weight 
of the grizzly bear is eight hundred pounds. The fur is 
very long and shaggy, but upon the young bear is very 
soft. The color of the cub is brown ; with advancing 
age it assumes a mottled appearance. Whether the fur 
beneath the surface is brown or grey, it is so evenly 



78 WESTERN WILD ANIMALS. 

tipped with white that it always assumes the grizzled 
appearance which gives the animal its name. 

RACOON. 

This animal is classed with the bears. It is strictly 
American, and ranges from Canada to Paraguay. The 
common racoon of the United States extends as far 
south as Texas. It equals the fox in size, and resembles 
it in the sharpened muzzle, and in the general shape of 
the head. Its nose tapers beyond the muzzle, and is 
flexible. Its sense of smell is wonderfully acute, being 
by all odds its most perfectly developed sense. It is 
nocturnal in its habits, and is not able to see well by 
daylight. Many of the tamed creatures become blind 
by the formation of cataracts upon the eyes. Though it 
is plantigrade, it is only when at rest that the foot is 
placed flat upon the ground. The claws are sharp. Its 
body is about two feet long, its tail one foot. The tail 
is bushy. The general color of the animal is a brownish 
or blackish grey; the tail has several rings of black upon 
it; the muzzle is of a dirty white, a dark brown mark 
streaks across the eyes, and one upon the nose runs high 
up on the forehead ; the under parts are the lightest. 
It feeds in the summer upon small animals, birds, insects, 
and eggs- but in general prefers a vegetable diet. It eats 
nuts, juicy fruits, and vegetables ; it frequently makes 
havoc upon poultry-yards. It is an excellent swimmer, 
and is especially fond of fish, and of oysters and crabs. 
The tropical species of the racoon is, from its crab-eating 
propensity, called the crab-eater. Its sense of touch is 
acute, and is of great service in opening the shells of 
oysters and crabs. The racoon has the habit of dipping 
its food into water before eating it, and is, therefore? 
sometimes called the Lotor or Washer. It sits upon its 



THE BEAR FAMILY. 79 

haunches while feeding, and holds its food pressed 
between the paws, but not grasped in either paw. The 
racoon is easily tamed, and has been the pet of so many 
that its habits are quite well known. It is inquisitive, 
lively, capricious, and, when tamed, tenaciously remem- 
bers an insult. The borders of the sea, and the margins 
of swamps and river banks are its favorite localities. It 
spends much of its time in the hollows of trees. In the 
winter it hybernates. The mother rears her young in 
one of these hollov/s, the entrance to which is generally 
high from the ground. It breeds in the spring ; the 
litter numbers from four to six. 

Coons are usually hunted by the dog chase. This 
method is generally productive of great fun to the sports- 
man. When the coon has been " treed," a fire is built 
underneath, and by the light of it the animal is found, 
and captured by any swift climber. 

The hunter takes them by the steel trap. The traps 
are set in some of their patlis, by the side of streams, or 
in cornfields, to which places they frequently resort. 
When put on the paths in the fields, the traps are in some 
way secreted, are covered with dirt, grasses or leaves. 
They are baited with fish ; the skin of the codfish, when 
roasted, is the best bait. If the traps are put near 
water they may be furnished with the same sort of bait. 
Their relish for roasted fish more than matches their 
cunning, and they are likely to be taken. An excellent 
method of trapping them is by setting a trap in water, 
and putting a piece of bright tin on the pan of the trap. 
They, being very fond of shell fish, are very curious to 
know what the bright tin is : they seem to think it is the 
shell of some animal. There is no better method than 
the last one named. 



80 WESTERN WILD ANIMALS. 

XIII. 
FELID.^i, OR CAT TRIBE. 



Here we find a tribe of fierce yet beautiful animals, 
among which stands one prominent in stern grandeur 
and majestic bearing, a most formidable foe, that King 
of beasts, the lion. His domain is now limited to 
Africa, and certain parts of Asia. Our American hunter, 
as such, therefore, cares nothing for him. 

In the same group of animals we find our common 
domestic cat. She is not specially valuable to the hunter, 
nor dear to those who think there is no animal so worthy 
of admiration and of petting as the horse or do,2;. Poor 
pussy is almost always sadly calumniated by the latter class 
of people, who set at great disadvantage her poorer traits of 
character by the most admirable ones of the dog. But 
she is not without her friends, and in the lap of their 
care and appreciation we leave her, assured that there 
she, representing the one extreme of the feline race, is 
as safe from the sneers and provocations of her enemies 
as are we from the clutches of the representative of the 
other extrenie, so long as Africa keeps her children at 
home, and circus-managers keep their strong birds caged. 

As a medium between these two extremes, we find in 
this country the Lynx, Cougar, and Jaguar, animals more 
rapacious than the domestic cat, less voracious than the 
lion, larger than the forn:ier, but not the peer of the 
latter. Still, since they possess the family traits, they are 
the most formidable, most blood-thirsty, in short, the 



FELW^E, OR CAT TRIBE. 81 

most typical of the carnivora. They doubtless fall more 
victims than other carnivora, but they also reject more 
of these for food, often refusing to eat carrion, while other 
animals less voracious, but more disgusting, prefer the 
most putrescent flesh. "Their frame is vigorous, but 
agile, their limbs are short, the joints are well knit but 
supple, and every motion is easy, free, and graceful. They 
leap and bound with astonishing velocity. Their foot- 
fall is silent, the foot being provided with elastic paas, 
namely, a large basal ball or cushion, and one under 
each toe. The claws are of enormous size, hooked and 
sharp." They are wonderfully constructed. As the 
felidae are digitigrade, and at the same time great climb- 
ers, and as they seize their prey by pouncing upon it, 
some provision must be made for the animal to walk 
upon the toes without injury to the claws, which must be 
kept sharp. " By a beautiful structural conformation of 
the bones, ligaments and muscular parts, they are always 
preserved without effort from coming in contact with the 
ground, and are retracted within a sheath, so as to be 
kept sharp and ready for service. This involuntary 
retraction, counteracted only by the action of muscles, 
is affected by two elastic ligaments, so contrived as to 
roll back the ultimate phalanx which the claw encases, 
and bring it down by the outer side of the penultimate 
phalanx which is flattened off to remove every obstruc- 
tion. From this position the talon can be thrown 
forward in a moment, the action of the double elastic 
spring being counteracted by that of the flexor muscles. 
In the act of striking with great violence, the flexor 
muscles strongly contract, brace up the tendon, and 
throw out the talon, which, when the act is over, returns 
to its sheath." 

The structure of the teeth is also strongly indicative 

6 



83 WESTERN WILD ANIMALS. 

of their destructive energy. The four canine teeth are 
admirably constructed for tearing the flesh, and they do 
tear their meat ; the molars' are as well suited to the 
pecking bites which they give to the torn pieces of flesh. 
The surface of the tongue is scarcely less remarkable. 
Its entire surface is covered with conical projections, 
which point towards the throat. These projections, or 
large papilla, make of the tongue an excellent instrument 
for cleaning off the small particles of flesh which would 
otherwise be left upon the bones which the animal may be 
picking. The skulls of this family bear marked resem- 
blances in the various species. 

The senses are in high perfection, with the exception 
of the sense of taste, and it is also true that the sense of 
smell is less acutely developed than in many other 
animal tribes. The sight, hearing, and feeling are all 
very acute, the first being adapted for nocturnal, as well 
"as diurnal vision, the last of these three senses having 
the singular but admirable provision of delicate feelers, 
in the whiskers. What better combination of provisions 
could be made for such sanguinary animals than these 
feelers, which warn of obstructions before a noise has 
been made by the body, in conjunction with the soft 
padded feet, which make no noise when the path has 
been determined upon. 

CANADA LYNX. 

This species of the Lyncine group which is found in 
the New World, receives its common name from one of 
the countries which it inhabits. The French Canadians, 
however, term it indifferently LeChat or Peeshoo. It 
lives in North America, in the region extending from 
the great lakes to the northern limits of the woods, and 




rt^''^-^iiiS'iif!S''iiii**(i 



FELID^-E, OR CAT TRIBE. 83 

ts found in the Mississippi Valley, but rarely on the sea 
coasts. It is the largest American species of this 
group. It is as large as a setter dog, or intermediate in 
size between a fox and a wolf. It measures three feet to 
the base of the tail, which is about four inches long, 
measured to the tips of the long hairs. The form of the 
head is very much like that of the domestic cat ; the 
nose is blunt ; the head is round, and is about the length 
of the tail. Its general form is less elongated than the 
most of the family ; the body is elevated at the haunches. 
The ears are pointed, erect, tipped with pencils of coarse, 
black hairs. 

Its general color is grey above ; the hairs are generally 
tipped with white, which accounts for the apparent 
changes in color of the same species at different times. 
In some specimens there is an indistinct mottling, but not 
often any defined markings. On the under parts it is 
lighter than on the back, and is sometimes white. The 
tail is greyish, but tipped with black. The fur is close 
and fine, shorter on the back than on the under parts. 
Its winter fur is long and silky. The same individual 
doubtless undergoes a change in the color and length of 
fur at different times of the year. Being an inhabitant 
of a colder climate than some of its kindred, it is more 
densely clothed with long fur than they. 

Its average weight is twenty pounds. It walks the 
lightest and stillest of any animal. It will walk on new 
fallen snow and not sink more than six inches. Its track 
is larger than that of the Cougar or American Panther ; 
because its toes, w^hich are heavily furred, are spread far 
apart when the animal bears its weight upon them. 
Some will make a track nine inches long, almost as long 
as that made by the black bear. 



84 WESTERN WILD ANIMALS. 

It generally lives in the deepest woods, rarely ap- 
proaching the habitations of men. It is most abundant 
in its most northern homes. It is strong and active, an 
excellent climber, and a good swimmer. Its gait is 
by bounds straightforward, with the back a little arched, 
and lighting on all four feet almost simultaneously. It 
feeds upon small quadrupeds, birds, fish, and is very fond 
of grouse. It will not attack any of the domestic 
animals unless driven by hunger. It is quite sullen and 
suspicious, and is not easily tamed. It is not courageous, 
seldom attacking large quadrupeds. It is not as prolific 
as the most of the cat tribe ; it breeds but once a year, 
and the number of its young rarely exceeds two. The 
mother secretes her young until they are large enough to 
follow her. Its fur is of some value to the hunter ; its 
skin is an important article in commerce. It can be 
taken like others of the carnivora. If the steel trap is 
used, it is to be concealed near one of its favorite haunts, 
and unless some of the flesh of an undevoured animal is 
close to it, it must be baited with some of its favorite 
meat. The scent of the beaver is excellent bait for the 
lynx, because it is especially fond of that. Some hunters 
use a pallet of birch bark to conceal the pan of the trap ; 
upon this covering they put a piece of the skin of some 
animal, strongly scented with the castoreum of the 
beaver, or other favorite scent. The lynx, in its attempt 
to drag away the skin is caught in the trap. It is not 
necessary to use a large clog ; as the lynx gives up easily, 
sometimes without an attempt to escape from the trap. 

I frequently make a pen near the trunk of some tree : 
the sides of the pen I run out about eighteen inches 
from the tree, and have a space of about fifteen inches 
at the base of the pen, which is a V shape : close to the 
tree, or the apex of the pen, I put several pieces of bait, 



FELIB^^, OR GAT TRIBE. 85 

and conceal the trap outside of it, near the base of the 
pen. The lynx will not eat the meat where it finds it, 
but will carry it off to eat ; and, if it does not step on 
the trap when it goes for or away with the first piece of 
bait, it will doubtless be caught before all the pieces have 
been eaten. 

THE WILD CAT, OR BAY LYNX, 

There are no long-tailed wild cats in this country. 
Our American wild cat is lynx-like, and is known as the 
Bay Lynx. The true wild cat is found on the Eastern 
Continent. It was once very abundant in England, but 
is now nearly extinct. It became a great pest, and was 
hunted in the chase by the aristocratic leisurist, and 
driven before the hands of toil and honorable industry, 
as men reared cities and planted fields where this fierce 
creature had roamed at will. In color and contour the 
Bay Lynx bears many resemblances to the Canada Lynx. 
The throat is surrounded with a ruff of long hairs; the 
ears are black on the inside, and have a white patch near 
the tip ; they are not tufted : the legs are long, and the hind 
feet are slightly webbed. The soles of the feet are naked. 
The fur is short and coarse. Its weight is from twenty 
to forty pounds. It mews and purrs like the domestic 
cat when it is in confinement. When roaming free, its 
caterwauling may be heard for a long distance. It feeds 
upon small quadrupeds, grouse, partridges, and other 
small birds. It frequents streams of water, where it feeds 
upon fish. The wild cat of the south frequents cane- 
brakes and briery thickets in search of game. It is not 
cowardly, as some suppose, afraid to attack a quadruped 
larger than itself. It is exceedingly fierce, more so than 
the Canada Lynx, and will waylay deer and kill them. 
I have seen the tracks of a wild cat coming up onto the 



86 WESTERN WILD ANIMAIJ\ 

trail of a deer, and could tell by the tracks at what point 
it had jumped, and when it had touched the deer. The 
wild cat had dragged its hind feet upon the ground for a 
little ways, and had then jumped upon the back of the 
deer. I have known instances of this kind when the 
deer had run on about sixteen rods, with the ugly fiend 
tearing into its flesh, before yielding, the hair torn out 
and scattered along the path. 

The lynx will come to almost any kind of bait, even 
flesh of its own sort. It is fond of venison. Like the 
rest of its tribe, it buries the flesh of its undevoured 
game. Traps for this animal are to be set in the same 
manner as for the Canada Lynx. 

West of the Rocky Mountains there is a variety of 
the wild cat called the Red Cat. Its color, which is a 
rich chestnut brown on the back, gives to it its name. 

THE COUGAR. 

This carnivorous animal belongs to the cat tribe. Few- 
creatures have been known by such a variety of names. 
Cougar is its proper and scientific name. It is exten- 
sively spread over North and South America, from Canada 
to Patagonia. It is more scarce than formerly, and its 
range is contracted. Advancing civilization will still 
further reduce its numbers and its hunting grounds. In 
South America it is generally called the Puma ; in the 
United States west of the Rocky Mountains, it is called 
the Californian Lion, or the American Lion. For the 
name of lion the cougar is indebted to its uniform tawny 
color, neither of them being streaked or spotted, as are 
many of the felidae, or cat tribe. East of the Rocky Moun- 
tains it is commonly called the Panther. The true 
panther, however, is confined to the Eastern Continent. 



FELID^E, OR CAT TRIBE. 87 

For the name of panther the cougar is indebted to its 
marked resemblance in habits to the pardine or spotted 
animals of the tribe. The cougar or puma loves to hide 
in the branches of trees, or to haunt grassy plains, where 
it can watch its prey, and pounce down or leap out upon 
it, and with its death-dealing paws make sure of its 
victim. There it destroys wild cattle in great numbers. 
In its northern home the cougar lives in the forests, or 
retreats to high rocky ledges, where it is literally lord 
of all it surveys. Hunters call them panther ledges. 

In its general contour it is elegantly formed, although 
the head is quite small and the limbs very thick. The 
fur is thick and close. The general color is silvery-fawn 
above, fading into a handsome greyish white on the under 
parts. The base of the ears, sides of the muzzle, and 
end of the tail are black : the breast is almost a pure 
white, as are also the whiskers. The young are marked 
with three rows of blackish brown streaks ; and the sides, 
shoulders and neck have clouded spots of the same 
color, thus resembling the leopard. These markings 
gradually fade, and when the animal has attained its full 
growth they have entirely disappeared. Only one mem- 
ber of the cat family existing on the Western Continent 
is larger than the cougar. Six and one-half feet is the 
total length of this animal, of which two feet is the 
measurement of the tail. Its eyes are large, grey, and 
look very fierce; its limbs are remarkably strong; the 
teeth are sharp, and the claws are long and heavy. 

The animal, being a very expert climber, is quick and 
nimble in its motions. It will catch a piece of flesh from 
any animal at which it strikes. Like the other members 
of its tribe, it is light, stealthy, and silent of foot ; the 
senses of hearing and smelling are acute, and it is swift 
of attack. It is nocturnal, as its stealthy, sneakish dis- 



88 WESTERN WILD ANIMALS. 

position might determine it to be. It has a special relish 
for the deer family, any of which it can capture. These 
it generally secures by pouncing upon them from some 
cliff or branch overhanging their paths or watering places. 
Its greed for them is almost insatiable, it being rarely 
satisfied with a single creature. It is also very fond of 
sheep and cattle. Hunters, therefore, kill them when 
they can. It is cowardly, and is oftener known to run 
from a man than to him. Instances are on record in 
which men and panthers have come unwittingly upon 
each other, and the latter have walked off completely 
mastered by the fixed gaze of the master human eye. 
When taken young the cougar is easily domesticated^ 
when wounded by man is a very dangerous foe. 

On the Pampas the puma is hunted with dogs, or on 
horseback, when the hunter uses the lasso and the bolos. 
In our own country it is almost always taken by rifle shot, 
while it is perched in some tree. It may be taken in the 
steel trap. The trap, after being placed near the remains 
of some animal which it has partially devoured, must be 
secreted. Its voracious appetite forbids it to leave any 
portion of the carcass undevoured, and it will frequent 
the spot until this is accomplished. It covers the food 
which it wishes to leave for a time. 



THE FOX. 89 



XIV. 
THE FOX. 



The fox is a well-known carnivorous animal, belonging 
to the vulpine division of the family canidae. It may be 
readily distinguished from the dog, the wolf, the jackal, 
etc., by the construction of the pupil of the eye, which is 
vertical, and not, as in the latter cases, circular. It 
may also be distinguished from the dog and the wolf 
by its sharp pointed muzzle, long, bushy and cylindrical 
tail, lower stature, slender limbs, and short, triangular 
ears. It is nocturnal in its habits, while they are diurnal. 
The dentition is the same as that of the wolf. 

The voice of the fox is a sort of yelp, though varying 
in its tones. Its color is a reddish brown, intermixed 
with black and white hairs. The tail, frequently called 
the brush, is colored like the rest of the body, except at 
the tip, which is white. The fur is very long, thick, fine 
and glossy : it has about the warmest fur of any animal. 
It never seems to suffer from the cold, although it is its 
habit to get upon upturned roots, knolls, and other high 
places, the better to watch everything around it. The 
fur of the winter-killed fox is, because of its warmth, 
very valuable. 

The fox breeds once a year, having from four to eight 
young ones at a litter. The entire care of the young 
devolves upon the mother. She prepares for them a bed 
of dried leaves, grass, and mosses. The kittens are very 
playful, playing like the kittens of the domestic cat. 



90 WESTERN WILD ANIMALS. 

They remain about four months under the immediate 
care of the mother fox ; she is very resolute in their 
defense. 

The fox is solitary in its habits, living alone in a bur- 
row, which it has usurped, or has made by digging up 
earth, if possible around and beneath the roots of a large 
tree. Sometimes these burrows are made between huge 
stones, or in other secluded situations. They are gen- 
erally in the neighborhood of a rabbit-warren, preserves 
of game, or farms. It is a very unsocial crea'ture, and 
cannot well be domesticated. Adults are ferocious when 
placed in confinement, and soon die. Though slightly 
made it is vigorous, and bites with great severity. 

It is a very rapid traveler, and in many of its motions 
is very graceful. It has a light, tripping gait, and puts 
one foot so nearly in front of the other that if a cord 
were stretched along its track, it would lie upon the tracks 
of all four feetat once. 

There is a gland near the root of the tail which secretes 
a very fetid substance. The scent is so strong that a man 
can easily track the animal for some distance. The scent 
clings for a long time to any object which it has touched. 

The fox feeds upon small quadrupeds, birds, fish, and 
the poultry and eggs which it delights to steal from the 
farmyard. Its taste is not at all fastidious, as it will 
eat small reptiles and carrion. We cannot say if stolen 
food is any sweeter to the fox for being stolen ; but it is 
very thievish, and sly in its attempts to get its food ; it 
steals under cover of night, and not satisfied with this 
dark covering, its manner of advancing is stealthy, 
pouncing at the last upon its prey. It is fond of fruit, 
especially of grapes, the sweet ones. Old Reynard doesn't 
like " sour grapes." The fox is still further responsible 
for our vocabulary of foxy phrases. The epithet " foxy," 



THE FOX. 91 

because of the characteristics of this little animal^ is 
proverbially applied to the cunning, tricky, and unscru- 
pulous knave. Sly as a fox, or cunning as a fox, are 
alike characteristic expressions. Many anecdotes are 
extant illustrative of the cunning of the fox in pursuing 
prey, or in eluding its pursuer. It is not a reliable 
creature, any more than are some people ; for it demands 
what it will not give ; namely, a fair chance to attack 
whom it will, but giving little of the sort to those that 
would fall upon it. Foxes are said to have been observed 
approaching water-fowl by swimming slowly with a turf 
in their mouth, so as to remain concealed. It is also 
stated in Chamber's Encyclopedia that " a fox was seen to 
approach a group of hares that were feeding in a field, 
with a slow, limping motion, and having its head down as 
if eating clover, till it was near enough by a sudden rush 
to secure a very different food." This is entirely credible, 
for it is a shrewd mimic ; it imitates very acurately the 
motions of other animals, to avoid attention. Foxes do 
not herd together when they hunt, but go singly, each 
one playing its own tricks, getting and eating its own 
food. It knows that some animals are afraid of its scent, 
and by taking advantage of this fear, sometimes secures 
to itself desirable food by getting in ahead of them, 
knowing that they will not come near the haunt again. 
Wood, in his " Mammalia," gives an account of some 
nefarious attempts of a tame fox to steal the food in- 
tended for the cats and dogs. 

Naturalists recognize fourteen species, which are dis- 
tributed through all latitudes : they are found in most 
parts of Europe, extending into Northern Asia, in Africa, 
and in America. Six of the fourteen species are found 
in the United States ; namely, the Red, Cross, Silver, 
Grey, Prairie or Swift, and the Kit Fox. 



92 WESTERN WILD ANIJTALS. 

The common Red Fox resembles the common fox of 
Europe ; its fur is, however, longer, finer, and is of a 
bright rufous brown, and is much more valuable, forming 
an important article of export. It is often used as an 
article of trade. About eight thousand are annually ex- 
ported to England from the fur countries where they are 
numerous. It has less vigor and endurance than the 
English fox. The American fox has great breadth of 
feet, giving to it greater capacity for traveling on the 
snow ; it has long hair, covering the back part of the 
cheeks, a short muzzle, short legs, and a very bushy brush. 
The Red Fox varies in its color more than some distinct 
species, some are dark, almost black ; some are of a pale 
yellow ; while others are of a reddish fawn. It measures 
three feet from the nose to the tip of the tail, and weighs 
from nine to fifteen pounds. It is a great rover, traveling 
from ten to twelve miles from home in a night. It is 
quite irregular in its tramps from home, but very regular 
in going to feed, even upon the hunter's bait when it has 
found it. It will frequently go for miles in precisely the 
same tracks, and night after night will follow them up. 
It is so keen scented that it has been known to leave its 
track for some rods to catch a mouse. Its tracks show 
that it has cautiously approached within a few feet of the 
mouse, and has then pounced upon it. It is said to have a 
habit of leaping along upon the snow to scare out the 
field mice. It possesses as much cunning and craft as 
belongs to any member of the fox family. It is found 
from Pennsylvania to Canada, and from the Atlantic to 
the Missouri river. 

The Cross Fox is similar to the Red Fox, but is distin- 
guished from it by having a longitudinal, dark band along 
the back, crossed by a transverse band over the shoulders- 
It is quite easily caught in its burrow, o: driven out of it. 



THE FOX. 93 

It is found in a region which is narrow, but which stretches 
through northern New York, Canada, Michigan and 
Wisconsin. 

The Grey Fox is very abundant in the southern states : 
it is occasionally found as far north as Canada. It is 
about the size of the Red Fox, is very cunning and 
sagacious. Its color, indicated by its name, is light on 
the upper side, and yellowish on the under side : its ears 
and feet are black. The fur is short, coarse, and thin. 
Its tail is somewhat flattened. In short, it is a cheap 
kind of fox. 

The fox hunt, from its exciting nature, the cool calcu- 
lation and stratagem requisite, has long been practiced, 
and known as the "King of British National sports." 
It is practiced in the southern states of our own country. 
The fox will sometimes go forty or fifty miles before the 
hound without stopping. To the practical hunter, and 
especially to the woodsman, this method of capturing the 
fox is not at all practicable. It is supposed by many to 
be effort thrown away to attempt to catch the fox by the 
steel trap ; it is, nevertheless, done with great success. 

There are different methods of setting the trap, as 
different localities demand. One very good method is as 
follows : put a piece of meat in a spring that does not 
freeze over in winter ; put it in so far from the dry ground 
that the fox cannot reach it without getting its feet wet, 
for, like cats, they do not like to get their feet wet; put 
a stone in the water between the water's edge and the 
bait. The stone should be large enough to come just above 
the surface of the water, and a piece of moss should be 
put on it for the fox to step its foot upon. The moss will not 
be as apt to awaken any suspicion as the stone would. 
The fox having once stepped upon the moss-covered 
stone, in search of the food, will be very sure to come again. 



04 WESTERN WILD ANIMALS. 

and so regular is it in its habits that the hunter can tell 
about when it Avill come. Let him now remove the stone 
and put in its place the steel trap, covering it with mud, 
and putting the moss on the pan of the trap. By this 
method the hunter will not fail to get his fox. 

I once caught one which was very lean ; the skin was 
also very poor. The trap caught it very low on the hind 
legs, and in an effort to extricate itself, it had torn the 
flesh very badly upon the jaws of the trap. I would not 
keep it, but let it go, saying that I would catch it another 
time. After about six weeks, during which time I had 
not seen my fox, I caught it again in a trap. I knew it 
to be the same fox ; for the broken bone in healing had 
left a bunch on the leg, and the wound above the fracture 
was not entirely healed over. 

Again, the trap may be set on a hummock, sand-bank 
or other slight elevation, as foxes deli^cht in resorting to 
such places to look about them. The trap should be 
concealed about two inches under the ground : the meat 
which is used for bait should be put over the trap, but 
not on the pan, and scattered all about it from six to 
eight inches around: the ground must be nicely smoothed 
over, or left to look as natural as possible ; for the fox is 
very suspicious of change : some bits of meat may be 
scattered on the ground some little distance from the trap, 
to attract attention ; they may be scattered along one, 
two, or three rods off: if the surface was very smooth it 
should be brushed with a quill or bush : all footsteps 
should be carefully erased. This method should be pur- 
sued in the fall before snow falls, or the ground is frozen. 
The fox in digging for the meat will find the trap. 

In Allegany county, New York, I once set a trap and 
covered it with chaff. I found the bait had been eaten 
and the trap tipped over. This performance was repeated 



THE FOX. 95 

several times. I then set two traps very near each other, 
one larger than the other. I found the little trap sprung, 
and the fox in the larger trap. It had avoided the larger 
one ; it was caught in the small one ; but being too 
small for it, it had extricated itself, and in the effort had 
inadvertantly sprung the large trap. The saying that "It 
takes a rogue to catch a rogue " is not without some 
verification. 

I have known many persons who could not get a fox 
to come close to a trap. A fox is suspicious of a man's 
track, and will not follow to the end of it. If the hunter 
will, after setting his trap, walk on in a circuitous course, 
in a short time coming back upon the track at a place 
walked over before the trap was set, he will surely catch 
his fox. I use this method in the winter, when the snow 
is on the ground and the animal can see the track. Since 
the ground is at this time frozen, I cover the trap with 
ashes. I do not believe that the fox is afraid of the scent 
of iron. 

It is better not to v/ash the trap after having caught a 
fox, as the fox scent is of itself excellent bait. Meat of 
various kinds makes good bait : the musk of the muskrat 
is very good. The scraps left from the trying of lard is 
the very best for baiting purposes. The fox is so fond 
of it that it will follow one a long distance, eating every 
particle that the man may have dropped, even though the 
pieces should be no larger than a pea. Though the fox 
is so exceedingly cunning, the hunter's knowledge of its 
favorite food often proves too much for the little creature. 

There is a fox known by hunters as the Samson Fox. 
There are but very few long, coarse hairs in the fur, and 
those look as if they had been crisped. They give to the 
animal a dark, dull color. The skin is almost worthless. 
It is in other respects like the common Red Fox. 



9.6 WEt^TERM WILD ANIMALS. 



XV. 
THE WOLF. 



"Few animals," says Wood, "have earned so widely 
popular, or so little enviable a fame as the wolves. 
Whether in the annals of history, in fiction, in poetry, or 
even in the less honored, but hardly less important liter- 
ature of nursery fables, the wolf holds a prominent 
position among animals. 

There are several species of wolf, each of which species 
is divided into three or four varieties, which seem to be 
tolerably permanent, and by many observers are thought 
to be sufficiently marked to be considered as separate 
species. However, as even the members of the same 
litter partake of several m.inor varieties in form and color, 
it is very possible that the so-called species may be noth- 
ing more than very distinctly marked varieties. 

These voracious and dangerous animals are found in 
almost every quarterof theglobe; whetherthecountry which 
they infest is heated by the beams of the tropical sun, or 
frozen by the lengthened winter of the northern regions. 
Mountain and plain, forest and field, jungle and prairie, 
are equally infested with wolves, which possess the power 
of finding nourishment from their united bands in locali- 
ties where even a single predaceous animal might be 
perplexed to gain a liveHhood." 

The wolf belongs to the dog family, and bearing many 
marked family traits, needs no detailed description. 
Ferocity, cowardice, and cunning, characteristics attribu- 



THE WOLF. 97 

table to wild beasts, are the natural developments of 
this species of the canidte tribe, the Canis Lupus. In 
structural formation it is very similar to many species of 
of the domestic dog, but yet would not be mistaken for 
it, while savage brute is depicted upon its countenance, 
and wildness is stamped upon its whole being. 

In North America there are two well-marked wolf 
sections. In the smaller section is found the Prairie 
Wolf. Its skull is slender, and its muzzle is fox-like, and 
the crests are not prominent. In the larger section the 
skulls are higher, the muzzle is more blunt, and the 
cranial crests are well developed. 

The common Grey or Timber Wolf is found in the 
northern part of North America. It measures from three 
to four and a half feet in length ; the tail is from seven- 
teen to twenty inches long. Its color is greyish above, 
the hairs are tipped with black, giving to the animal a 
mottled appearance ; the under parts are much lighter. 

The Indians take this wolf by advancing upon it by 
taking first a circuit of several miles about it, and follow- 
ing this by a series of narrower and continually narrower 
circles, until they have come within shooting distance of 
it. Large premiums have been awarded for the destruc- 
tion of this creature. This species of wolf is the only 
one found in Canada. It is stouter than the common 
European wolf: its hair is longer and finer. 

The wolf on the upper waters of the Missouri is white ; 
in the north-western states it is dusky, in the south black, 
and in Texas reddish. Except the antelope, it is the 
fleetest animal in the Missouri region. 

Wolves were formerly much larger throughout the 
United States than new. A few of these giant wolves 
are still found in the most densely wooded mountain 



98 WESTERN WILD ANIMALS. 

regions of the New England states, and in unsettled 
portions of the country which deer inhabit. 

The Buffalo Wolf is the largest American species. In 
the far west these follow the buffalo in packs, and fall 
upon the sick or feeble ones of the herd, or upon the 
stragglers ; but they do not when alone attack the 
vigorous ones. When in packs, and very furious, they 
will make an assault upon man or beast, and will gen- 
erally devour them. A pack of wolves, when infuriated, 
will fall upon its prey with the greatest violence ; but if 
any one of the pack is left alone, it will, like the sneak 
and coward that it is, howl and snap its teeth, but will 
not dare to advance. Some have supposed that these 
large wolves were a distinct species, and have therefore 
called them the Giant Wolf. It is probable that they are 
identical with the common Grey Wolf, but of larger 
growth ; because in earlier days nature, having fewer to 
nourish, had given them a double portion. The color is 
due to climatic influences. The same is true of other 
animals. They are the largest, most robust, their native 
tendencies most perfectly developed in their most natural 
homes. Wild beasts are the most bestial in their wildest 
homes : they become enfeebled and intimidated when 
bounds are set to their rovings, by the building of towns, 
or by the woodsman's forest clearing. 

The Rocky Mountain White Wolf and the Buffalo 
Wolf are the largest known animals of the Lupine 
division of the dog family. Next to these in size is the 
Timber Wolf. It is rarely seen in the day time: I have 
never seen but one in the day time, in its wild condition, 
unless it were in a trap. 

The wolf is to be trapped in the same manner as the 
fox ; only, the trapper must take pains not to leave any 
artificial work about the trap. Traps are sometimes set 



THE WOLF. 99 

on paths which it follows in the swamps, or elsewhere. 
Everything must be left about a trap to look perfectly 
natural. They are great ramblers. After having killed 
a deer, they will often leave for days what remains from 
their first meal. They will sometimes be gone ten or 
twelve days, but are sure to come back to the same spot : 
they will not abandon it so long as any of the carcass 
is left. Such a place is, therefore, a very good one for 
trap setting. 



100 WESTERN WILD AN1MAL8. 



XVI. 
THE OPOSSUM. 



The marsupials to which order the opossum belongs 
are confined to Australia and its adjacent islands, and to 
America. Fossils are still found here; but there is now 
only one existing genus found in this country. The dis- 
tinguishing characteristic of these animals, and that 
which gives to them their name, is a pouch or marsupium 
in which the immature young are carried, and where they 
are nourished until they are able to begin to care for 
themselves. In some cases the pouch is only rudi- 
mentary, being but folds of the skin, and in w^hich cases 
the young cannot be carried about in them. The Vir- 
ginian Opossum is very prolific, often producing fifteen 
or sixteen at a birth. The mother conceals hers(ilf in 
some nest which she has made of dry grasses, and when 
her young are fifteen days old she transfers them to the 
pouch, where she keeps them for thirty-five days. When 
they are placed in the pouch they are less than an inch 
in length, inclusive of the tail. They have at this time 
no hair upon the bodies, are blind and also deaf. When 
they are fifty days old they are about the size of a mouse, 
have hair upon their bodies, and being then released 
from the pouch, the eyes are opened. The tails exhibit 
at this early period their prehensile character. The exact 
time when their deaf ears are unstopped is not known. 
A great amount of careful observation has been required 








THE VIRGINIAN OPOSSUM. 



TEE OPOSSUM. 101 

to ascertain these facts., some of which Wood has given 
in his " MammaHa." 

The opossums of America are especially remarkable 
for their robust forms, and their peculiar habits. There 
are about twenty species, of which the Virginian Opossum 
ranks first in interest to us. It is not confined, as its 
name might miply, to Virginia, but is found in many 
parts of the United States, ki size it is equal to that of 
an ordinary cat, or, it is about twenty-two inches in the 
length of the head and body, measured over the curve of 
the back. The tail is fifteen inches long, is prehensile, 
but capable of involution only on the under side, and is 
covered with scales, through the interstices of which a 
few short hairs protrude. The inner toe of the right foot 
is converted into a thumb, destitute of a claw, and has a 
nail hke the thumb of a child ; it is opposable to the 
other toes, thus enabling it to grasp the branch of a tree 
with considerable force. The structure of the tail and 
feet is such as to make it an admirable climber. It is a 
five-toed plantigrade, the limbs are short, the claws are 
long and sharp. The teeth are numerous, amounting to 
about fifty. The head is long and pointed, the profile 
straight. The eyes are high on the forehead, are small, 
dark, prominent, and have a nictitating membrane, but 
no eyelids. The ears are large, thin, naked, and rounded. 
The tongue is rough. The snout is long, the muzzle 
pointed, naked, and moist. The nostrils are lateral. 
The mouth is wide, and the whiskers are stiff. The ex- 
pression of the physiognomy is peculiar and unpleasant. 
The fur of the opossum is fine and wooly, and is long 
and soft, except on the head and some of the upper parts, 
where it is short and coarse. The general color of the 
fur is a dirty white, slightly tinged with yellow, and diver- 
sified by occasional long hairs that are white toward their 



102 WESTERN WILD ANIMALS. 

base, but of a brownish hue towards their points. The ears 
are black, margined at the tip with white. The scaly por- 
tion of the tail is white. 

The opossum is slow in its movements. It is nocturnal 
and nonaquatic in its habits. It is a forest resident, 
spending its time during the day on the branches and in 
the hollows of trees, in a torpid state. It often hangs 
suspended from branches of trees by the tail, and by- 
swinging its body will contrive to fling itself to the 
adjoining boughs. It often sleeps while thus suspended 
from the limb of a tree. At night it prowls about, liking 
best the bright, still nights, visiting rice fields, low, 
swampy places, or barnyards. Its good climbing abilities 
makes the latter place almost defenseless ; its sense of 
smell is in high perfection, and its voracity and destruc- 
tiveness are remarkable. Its bill of fare, well propor- 
tioned to the cravings of imperious hunger, consists of 
small quadrupeds, some of which it eats by the brood at 
a time, reptiles, birds, insects, eggs, also roots, fruits, nuts, 
and juicy stalks of plants. It is very fond of maize, and 
its fondness for persimmons is almost proverbial. It has 
been seen hanging from persimmon trees while gathering 
and eating the fruit. It is cunning in its stealthy quest 
for prey. It is neither gregarious in its habits, nor grace- 
ful in its gait. It is fond of lying on its back in the sun 
for hours together, and is then frequently found alone. 
Its gait on the ground is heavy and pacing. When 
irritated, the animal emits a very unpleasant odor, and it 
is in many respects displeasing in its habits and ap- 
pearance. 

The trick so extensively known as "playing possum" 
is shrewdly managed by this little creature, though it 
often suffers severe torture at the hands of its would-be- 
captors. It does not often put this ruse in practice, until 



THE OPOSSUM. 103 

all other means of escape have proved futile : when it 
does yield to feigning death, only an old " possum " hun- 
ter can always tell whether the wary creature is really 
dead, or whether it plays dead. Some one says, " If a cat 
has nine lives, this creature surely has nineteen ; for if 
you break every bone in its body, mash its skull and 
leave it for dead, it may still survive, and you may find it 
after a time creeping away." 

It is a stupid fellow, and utterly neglects its safety, but 
being blessed with a good appetite, may be easily caught 
in traps set in its paths, which may be baited with any of 
its favorite kinds of food. Very rude traps are often the 
effectual means of its capture. 



104 WESTERN WILD ANIMALS. 



XVII. 
THE MUSKRAT. 



The Rat *is classed among the rodents, or gnawers. 
The rodents have no canine teeth. The molars have flat 
surfaces ; the incisors are exactly adapted to gnawing, 
nibbling, and scraping. The incisors of other animals 
would soon wear out, if those animals were subjected to 
the same method of eating, and so would they wear out 
in the present case, but for a provisional arrangement by 
which the worn-out particles are being constantly re- 
newed. When the growth of the teeth is provided for, 
one other thing must be done, and is done. The chisel- 
like edge of the incisors must not be allowed to become 
dull, else the animal might as well have no fully devel- 
oped teeth. The enamel and the dentine of each tooth 
is much harder on the anterior surface of the tooth than 
on the posterior, and this layer forms the cutting edge, as 
does the layer of steel on softer metal, composing a com- 
mon chisel. The back surfaces of the teeth are worn 
away much faster than the front, and the edge is pre- 
served. 

The rodents are extensively spread over the globe. 
They are represented by the mice, rats and squirrels. 
One must be quite ignorant to know nothing of their 
physical structure, or of their vexatious and destructive 
habits. 

Musquash, Ondathra and Muskrat are names given to 
this species of the rat. It is a native of North America, 



THE M U8KRA T. 105 

where it is widely known. Its color is a dark umber- 
brown on the back, passing into a brownish-yellow on the 
under parts. The fur is composed of fine, silky hairs, 
with which longer, coarser hairs are intermingled, especi- 
ally on the upper side. 

Muskrats are aquatic in their habits and are excellent 
swimmers. The hind feet are slightly twisted ; the inner 
edge is posterior to the outer, thus becoming a very good 
oar when the animal is swimming. The hind feet are 
webbed ; fur covers the tops of them ; the soles are 
naked ; the edges are margined with bristly hairs. The 
fore-feet have a wart-like thumb and four toes; the hind 
feet have five toes. The tail is about two-thirds as long 
as the body, is scaly, and between the scales there are 
short hairs. About two-thirds of the length of the tail is 
rudder-shaped. 

They are nocturnal in habits, omnivorous in appetite, 
and yet they live principally upon a vegetable diet, upon 
roots and tender shoots. They frequently feed upon the 
dead bodies of their own kind, and upon the lacerated 
bodies which they find struggling in some trap. 

We quote from Audubon and Bachman the following 
on the habits of these animals : " Muskrats are very 
lively, playful animals when in their proper element, the 
water; and many of them may be occasionally seen dis- 
porting themselves on a calm night in some mill-pond or 
deep sequestered pool, crossing and recrossing in every 
direction, leaving long ripples in the water behind them, 
while others stand for a few moments on little hurdles or 
tufts of grass, or on stones or logs, on which they can get 
a footing above the water, or on the banks of the pond, 
and then plunge one after the other into the water. At 
times one is seen lying perfectly still on the surface of 
the pond or stream, with its body widely spread out, and 



106 WESTERN WILD ANIMALS. 

as flat as can be. Suddenly it gives the water a smart 
slap with its tail, in the manner of the beaver, and disap- 
pears beneath the surface instantaneously, going down 
head foremost, and reminding one of the quickness and 
ease with which some species of ducks and grebes dive 
when shot at. At the distance of ten or twenty yards, the 
Muskrat comes to the surface again, and perhaps joins its 
companions in their sports ; at the same time others are 
feeding on their grassy banks, dragging off the roots of 
various kinds of plants, or digging underneath the edge 
of the bank. These animals seem to form a little com- 
munity of social, playful creatures, who only require to 
be unmolested in order to be happy. Should you fire off 
a fowling-piece while the IMuskrats are thus occupied, a 
terrible fright and dispersion ensues ; dozens dive at the 
sound of the gun, or disappear in their holes." 

Its burrows are upon the banks of streams. The en- 
trances are under water, and lead up sufficiently high to 
be beyond the reach of the greatest freshets. They are 
made of mud, in a conical form ; long grasses are inter- 
mixed with the mud ; dried grasses are used for beds 
within the burrows. The winter burrows are about fifty 
feet from the water; by water commAinications with the 
burrows the entrances are still from the under side. In 
swampy localities they build their houses of sticks, grasses, 
reeds and small branches ot trees. They are in other 
respects like the burrows upon dry ground. When the 
surface of the water in which they are freezes over, they 
make feeding holes ; these holes they protect from frost 
by a covering of grasses. They seem to prefer swamps to 
deep, clear water, and probably because they find their 
food, grasses, pond-lilies, etc., more readily in such 
places. They swim near the surface of the water and 
can easily be seen through the ice. 



THE MUSKRAT. 107 

Hunters spear them through the walls of their burrows. 
The spear is a piece of iron about three feet long, a half 
inch bar of iron ; the point is sharp and has two beards. 
Great caution should be used in approaching their bur- 
rows, as they are suspicious of a strange noise, and will 
take to the water for safety. The hunter should carry 
two spears ; so that when an animal is caught the other 
will be ready to follow up those that run out. They are 
also speared through the ice. The hunter should wear 
moccasins or something very soft, in order to approach 
noiselessly. In striking a spear through the ice it is not 
uncommon to catch several at a time. An experienced 
hunter can tell by the condition of the house where the 
animal lives, and also the location of the chambers of the 
burrows, and its probable position in the chamber. They 
are also taken by the hunter's spear at their feeding 
places ; these are the surest places for this mode of cap- 
ture. After swimming some distance under the ice they 
stop, and putting the head close to the ice they ex- 
hale ; the air which they emit from the lungs remains in 
bubbles until it has had time to become oxydized by the 
water, when they inhale the purijfied air and swim on. 
Taking advantage of this, the hunter can spear them in 
great numbers ; he can see the bubbles through the ice, 
and has time to throw his spear while the animal is stop- 
ping to catch its breath. The Indians spear them. 

The steel trap makes a better instrument for their cap- 
ture than the spear. Traps should be set at the entran- 
ces to their burrows, and in the principal feeding places. 
They should be so set that the rats in endeavoring to 
extricate themselves shall be flung into deep water. 

The best seasons for rat spearing or trapping are the 
autumn before the snow has fallen, and the spring after 
it has disappeared. In the summer these animals burrow 



108 WESTERN WILD ANIMALS. 

in the banks of lakes, or streams, or in their houses, and ' 
they make canals sometimes many yards in extent. In 
the autumn when they are attacked they retreat to these 
canals. 

The flesh of the muskrat and the musk of the animal 
are the best bait. It is best when bating traps set at a 
burrow entrance to put the bait about six inches beyond 
the trap on the land side ; because the water is the natu- 
ral home of these rats, and they will therefore oftener 
approach from the water side of the trap. The bait 
should be set in very shallow water ; or if the water is 
deep close to the land, put it upon the land and the trap 
very close to the shore. When the musk is used for bait, 
it is to be put upon a piece of wood, or a twig, and stuck 
into the ground. Muskrats frequently follow each other 
for long distances on account of the scent which they 
emit. Their odor is offensive, yet less so than that of 
the mink. They are not very cunning, and may be taken 
in any steel-trap or in an ordinary box-trap. Musk, which 
is to be used in bating them, can be obtained the best in 
the spring. It should be preserved in alcohol. They 
are the prey of a great many animals. 

They are prolific, breeding twice a year, and producing 
from four to ten at a time. The nests in which they 
breed their young are in a chamber at the extremity of 
some canal or road. 



THE BEAVER. 109 



XVIII. 
THE BEAVER. 



The Beaver belongs to the order Rodentia, the dis- 
tinguishing characteristics of which have already been 
noticed. One South American rodent is larger than the 
Beaver; with this exception it is the largest among ex- 
isting species of its order. The American fossil Beaver 
is the largest rodent, either among fossil or living speci- 
mens. It is said to be contemporaneous with the masto- 
don, and is therefore one of the oldest of the mammalia. 

The home of the American Beaver was more widely 
spread over the continent than that of any other animal. 
The boundary lines of the homestead of this veteran 
were by no means stingily set, extending as they did over 
and beyond the limits of the United States. The Arctic 
Ocean marked its northern boundary, the Atlantic its 
eastern, and the Pacific its western. Being aquatic in its 
habits, its resorts were upon the streams and the smaller 
lakes. 

The Hudson's Bay territory, the Lake Superior regions, 
the head waters and the tributaries of the most of the 
large rivers were the favorite resorts, and the places where 
the beaver congregated in the greatest numbers. Ad- 
vancing civilization, like the utilitarian that it is, has 
driven it beyond the thickly settled portions of the coun- 
try. Its homes in the more sparsely settled sections, or 
the wilds of the far West, are the same as formerly. For 
the trapper who would understand the habits of the 



110 WESTERN WILD ANIMALS. 

beaver to increase the profits of his traffic, for the scientist 
who would study their ways and means of living for the 
knowledge he would acquire and could impart, there is 
no better place on the continent than that known as the 
Lake Superior region. There they are very abundant 
and their works are numerous, large, and very perfect. 

In its physical structure the American Beaver is of 
comparative low order. Its general contour is squirrel- 
like, or rat, or rabbit-like, being of the same order as 
these animals. Its form is quite clumsy, the body is the 
largest through the middle and tapers gradually towards 
the extremities, thus making its upper margin, viewed 
from the side, very plain. The ears are exceedingly 
small ; they are short and obtusely pointed. The sense 
of hearing is acute, the internal ear being relatively large. 
The eyes are small and devoid of any marked expression; 
they are set midway between the nostrils and the ears. 
The vision is short. The sense of smell is acute. 

The jaws are furnished with the most perfect roden- 
tial teeth. Unlike the rodents as an order, the beaver 
has a free horizontal movement of the inferior jaw, a 
motion made from side to side. This increases the power 
of mastication. The tliree animals of this order previ- 
ously referred to are also exceptions to the rule. The 
muscle which provides for this horizontal motion of the 
jaw, the wonderful perfection of chisel-like teeth fur- 
nishes another instance of the adaptation of wants and 
means. There are twenty teeth, eight in each jaw are 
molars and two are incisors. These incisors, or canine 
teeth as some prefer to call them, are rootless teeth ; half 
of the molars are deciduous ; in the perfected state the 
molars are rooted teeth. 

The legs of the beaver are built in conformity to its 
amphibious nature. The fore legs are short, being about 



THE BEA VEE. Ill 

five inches long, inclusive of the claws. There are five 
claws. The hind legs are long and the claws are larger 
than upon the fore feet or hands. The feet are com- 
pletely webbed. The palms of the hands and the soles of 
the feet are padded and naked. 

The tail, which is composed mostly of dense fatty tis- 
sue, is broad and thin, and is slightly convex on both 
surfaces ; the edges are very thin. It is attached to the 
body by a posterior projection measuring about four 
inches in length ; in this projection are found the strong 
muscles which control the motions of the tail. In its 
outline the tail is a good oval except at the anterior ex- 
tremity where it measures about three and a half inches 
in width. The tail is covered with a lustrous, black, 
scale-like substance ; this substance, however, is not 
horny, but is a thick dermis so serrated as to present the 
appearance of perfect scales. It is continuous upon both 
surfaces of the tail. The dimensions of a beaver's tail 
average six inches in width, and tw^elve in length ; the 
thickness through the middle of it is one inch. 

The fur on the back is nearly two inches long ; on the 
extreme under parts the fur, which is destitute of the 
long hairs, is very fine. In its northern homes the color 
of the beaver is black, or a chestnut brown. The under 
fur is darker than the outer fur or the long hair. Some 
specimens in the Lake Superior region are coal black. 
In California they are often of a leadish color. The aver- 
age size of the beaver's body is two and one-half feet 
exclusive of the tail. Its weight is forty-five pounds. 

The beaver is a burrowing animal ; its claws are there- 
fore constructed for excavators. The hands and the 
arms, or the fore legs, are powerless in the water, and are 
laid back upon the body when the animal is swimming, 
by this means not only taking themselves out of the w^ay 



113 WESTERN WILD ANIMALS. 

when of no service, but by the act facilitating the motions 
of the body. When working upon the land they become 
excellent implements for burrow digging, and for other 
purposes in the construction of its works. 

When the beaver is cutting wood it sits in an upright 
position, the tail and the hind legs giving it a firm sup- 
port. When frightened it sits in this position, and 
depends upon its acute hearing to learn of threatening 
danger. When in the water the legs and tail become of 
the most service in the act of swimming. The legs are 
thrown horizontally backwards ; the head is just out of 
water; the hinder parts of the body are sunk in the water. 
When they wdsh to swim very rapidly they go to the 
bottom. When in very deep and still water they will, by 
the motion of the tail, which they use as a propelling 
power, make a swell upon the surface a foot high. The 
tail is the rudder, and, therefore, determines the 
position of the head, and the direction of the body. 
Like the muskrat, it swims for long distances under water 
without breathing. When the animal is frightened it 
slaps its tail Upon the water, and always dives imme- 
diately afterwards. By this means it makes a very loud 
noise, loud enough to alarm any beaver at a long distance. 
Another function is attributed to the tail of the beaver. 
It is sometimes called a trowel, because it is used in 
packing dirt upon its dams and its burrows. 

When the animal walks it raises the body only just 
above the ground; the tail drags upon the ground. Its 
gait is slow and shuffling. It is not by rapid strokes, but 
by exceedingly skillful ones that it fells forests and builds 
extensive dams. It is a graceful and rapid swimmer. 
The water is its natural home. It visits the land to 
obtain its supplies of food, and the materials for the 
building of its homes. 



THE BEAVER. 113 

The beaver, like other rodents, is a vegetarian. It is 
fond of coarse grasses that grow in the margins of its 
ponds, and in its meadows ; it also feeds upon the roots 
of the pond lily, and of other plants. It is extremely 
fond of blueberries and raspberries. In the summer it 
frequently cuts off all the raspberry brush it can find. It 
is generally known to be a great wood-chopper, and it is 
also believed by many that it will fell trees to get the 
bark and clear wood for food. It does not feed upon 
either in the summer. No fresh cuttings of large trees 
are found from early spring until the fall, at such times 
as it begins its cutting for the winter. Sometimes its 
food gets sour from long soaking, and its winter supply is 
not sufficiently great to last through the season. Fresh 
cuttings are, therefore, sometimes seen late in the winter. 

It is said that the beaver will not eat the bark of ever- 
green trees, and that in the Lake Superior regions no 
evergreens are cut, except occasionally a spruce tree 
which is probably cut for its gum. I have seen, and in 
this same beaver section, balsam, spruce and cedar cut- 
tings which have been drawn into the water, and know 
that the beaver has eaten the bark from themi. Upon the 
shores of Lake Superior the hemlock, the tamarack, and 
the spruce are found in great abundance. The poplar, 
maple, birch, and willow are also found, but not in so 
great numbers. Upon the tops and the bark of these 
trees it places its main reliance for winter food. It eats 
the whole of the lips of the branches, the bark, and the 
clear wood so long as these are tender, but does not feed 
upon the coarse, rough bark of the trunks or heavy 
branches of large trees, nor does it ever eat the clear 
wood, except as above stated, unless driven to it by 
extreme hunger. Sometimes no chips are found about a 

fresh cut tree, and some suppose that the beaver eats 

s 



114 WESTERN WILD ANIMALS. 

them. I have reason to believe that they are not eaten, 
but are washed away by high water. 

Beavers are social animals. Two families frequently 
inhabit a single pond, but one family never occupies the 
same lodge. There are from eight to eleven in a family, 
namely ; the two old ones, the two or three young ones, 
the two or three yearlings, and the two or three two year 
olds. They leave the parent lodge when they are three 
years old. 

The beaver is not a handsome creature. Physically 
considered, it furnishes little interest to the careless 
observer ; but when that man learns that it is the great 
animal architect upon which he is looking, his eyes at 
once betoken the desire he feels to know more of his 
habits and his works. 

Building, repairing, and in fact almost all the work of 
the beaver is done at night. Repairs upon the dams and 
lodges are made quite largely of the peeled timber from 
the feed beds. Beavers do much of their work in small 
companies. They begin their year's work in the fall ; in 
other words, their new year begins with the fall. They 
frequently begin their work in September ; October and 
November, however, are the busy months with them. As 
trappers can make some fair estimates of the probable 
severity of the coming winter by the condition of the fur 
of animals, so they can of the duration of the cold 
season by the time at which the beavers begin their 
cuttings. The amount of repairs which they make upon 
their lodges is also indicative of the severity of the 
season. They use many precautions in their arrange- 
ments for their winter quartering within the lodge and in 
the pond, and so true to nature are their instincts, if, in- 
deed, they may be said to possess no higher power than 
that of instinct, that they are rarely starved or frozen in. 



THE BE A VER. 115 

THE BEAVER AS A WOOD-CHOPPER. 

When cutting a tree the beaver sits upon its hind legs : 
its tail lies with the under side flat upon the ground, and 
serves as a support : the fore paws are put upon the trunk 
of the tree close to where it is chopping. The teeth, 
which have already been described somewhat, make at 
every blow deep incisions. The animal walks around the 
tree as it cuts, seldom making the incisions all from one 
side. When the tree is cut so deep as to cause it to lean, 
the animal becomes cautious, and when it falls retreats 
to the water, seeming to expect that the crash will bring 
some enemy to the spot. Two frequently work together 
at cutting, and occasionally some of the young ones help. 

After a tree has been felled they begin to strip the tree 
of its branches, then the limbs from the branches. The 
larger the trunks, the shorter are the pieces into which 
they are cut. They rarely cut trees having a diameter 
of more than eighteen inches ; six to eight inches is the 
average diameter. When a tree has been felled and the 
main branches are partially cut, they use great ingenuity 
in turning them. If a log is too heavy for them to turn 
they abandon it. V\'hen logs which might possibly be 
turned, but which would yet be very difficult to trans- 
port, are cut they do not roll or push them along as some 
suppose, but leave them. I have seen a great many of 
these logs lying as the beaver first left them. 

They carry their sticks from the places where they are 
cut to the water, by putting one end in the mouth ; the 
paws also help to hold it ; the other end drags upon the 
ground. Having reached the w^ater, they carry the stick 
in the same manner as when upon the land, and not cross- 
wise and ur.der the throat and pushed along as they 
swim as is often stated to be the case. Trunk cuttings 



116 



WESTERN WILD ANIMALS. 



average three and a half feet in length ; pole cuttings are 
from SIX to twelve feet long. The accompanying cut repre- 
sents some beaver chippings of the natural size. They 
show that the animal does a part of its cutting by splitting, 
and not entirely by chopping. They do not split long 
sticks of wood ; but when they have cut into the wood 
as far as they wish to, they split it from the trunk. This 
splitting is shown in the figure by the last cutting or the 
upper margin of the chips. 




They store their wood in piles in the water, a short 
distance from the lodge. The piles contain from one-half 
of a cord to five cords of brush and timber. It is said 
by some that poplar sticks, and other light wood they 
sink, by putting mud and stones upon them. I have 
never seen anything packed upon them, and yet none of 
these sticks are left to float. Let a man pick up from 
the bottom of the stream one of these fresh-cut sticks 
and he will every time fail to make it sink again. Some 
one should be able to tell the puzzled trapper how the 



THE BEA VER. 117 

beaver sinks his light timber. Piles of brush are also 
sunk in the water. 

BEAVER DAMS. 

The dam ranks first in order and in importance among 
the beaver's works ; and its structure is more generally 
understood than that of his lodges, canals or slides. 

The beaver is illy provided with homes ready made, 
either upon the land or in the water. Nature, however, 
does not leave her children without homes, or ability to 
provide such for themselves, and when she does not fur- 
nish the one she does the other. Few animals are so de- 
pendent upon themselves for places of shelter or enjoy- 
ment, and none are better able to meet the necessities of 
the case. The beaver is a burrowing animal, but as its 
natural home is in the water, there must be some water 
entrance to it. It is to provide, and to furnish an arti- 
ficial pond as a place of safety from assault, and also a 
pleasanter water home that the beaver builds the dam. 

Long continued, patient eftbrt is required to erect 
these fortifications. Having once been built, they are 
maintained by a curious system of repairs. Many of 
them are supposed to be hundreds of years old, and some 
have doubtless been built thousands of years. The ex- 
tent of beaver meadows, the great size of many of the 
dams, the growth of heavy timber upon some of these, 
and the hummocks formed upon them by the decay of 
vegetable matter, are some of the evidences of the very 
great age of this species of his work. 

There are two kinds of dams; the stick dam and the 
solid bank dam. The first of these is found upon brooks 
or small clear rivers. The second species is found upon 
deeper water, very frequently further down the stream, 
upon which they have built a stick dam. Beavers tenant 



118 WESTERN WILD ANIMALS. 

the small lakes of mountainous countries, and build dams 
upon their outlets ; but they are found in greater num- 
bers in the brooks and small rivers, probably to avail 
themselves of the current for the transportation of build- 
ing and food materials. As they prefer shallow streams 
to deep water, the stick dam is found in greater numbers 
than the solid bank dam. As water will percolate some- 
what through the stick work of the first species, further 
down the stream is very frequently found quite a large 
body of water held by the solid walls of the second 
species of dams. 

Stick dams are built straight across the smallest 
streams. The sticks are placed upon the sides and not 
with one end driven into the ground. As they prefer 
those streams which have a hard and if possible a stony 
bottom, it is probable that it is no part of their plan to 
drive the stakes into the ground. Drift-wood, birch, 
poplars, and green willows, irregularly intermixed with 
mud. vegetable fibre and stones, are the chosen building 
materials. Their main object seems to be to carry out 
the work with a regular sweep, and to make the whole of 
equal strength. They lay the sticks crosswise and nearly 
horizontal and they keep them in their places by heaping 
mud and stones upon them. The mud and the stones 
they get from the banks or river bottom, and they carry 
them by the aid of the fore paws under the throat ; the 
sticks they carry in their teeth. 

Some dams are built of very small sticks, varying from 
one to two i^.ches in diameter and from one to three feet 
in length. Sometimes they use logs, one or one and one- 
half feet in diameter. Six or seven inches is the average 
diameter of the sticks which they use, and they are gene- 
rally about three feet long. The dams vary in length 
from one to five hundred yards. They are generally ten 



THE BEA VEIL 119 

or twelve feet in width at the bottom, and two or three 
feet wide near the top ; the crest of the dam is, however, 
very narrow. The height of the dam varies according 
to the depth of the water, varying from one to six feet ; 
the average is three feet. The central portion of the 
dam is called the main dam ; the extremities are called 
the wings. 

The water must be sufficiently deep to prevent freez- 
ing at the bottom. On the lower face of the dam the 
sticks are arranged promiscuously, and apparently with 
such looseness that it sometimes seems as if the dam 
could be very easily picked to pieces. The sticks, poles, 
and logs are, however, almost always laid with their 
lower or larger ends against the ground, and their upper 
ends are elevated and pointed up stream. This is not 
the way men build dams; for they put the butt end of the 
log up stream, and the upper end with the branches down 
stream. The beavers are doubtless the better builders; 
for when water overflows its dams it does not flow into, 
and thus wash away the coarse cement which holds to- 
gether the lighter parts of the foundation. The water 
face is found to present a smooth earth wall ; for the 
interspaces on the water side are filled in with brush- 
wood, stones, grasses, and mud. These are so well packed 
together that the dam resists the pressure of the water, 
until it rises to the summit of the dam. On the water 
face of the dam, the poles and sticks do not come quite 
to the surface ; the crest is formed of mud, fine sod or 
vegetable fibre. Through this crest the surplus water is 
discharged. The discharge is regulated by the beavers ; 
else the wear of the upper face, by the running of water 
through the mud and other soft stuff, would bring the 
water level too low, or by an overflow above the crest 
would wear the dam needlessly. Ordinarily the water 



120 WESTERN WILD ANIMALS. 

level of the pond is uniform. Sometimes water will over- 
flow a dam at a depth of several inches. 

Many dams are so evenly constructed that the crest 
presents a thread-like appearance. Sometimes the crest 
is as even, but is wide enough to furnish a sure footing all 
along its line. Beaver's tracks are often seen upon the 
crest. Sometimes the upper margin is quite uneven, and 
is here and there inundated ; yet this is not often the 
case with stick-dams in good repair. Some dams will 
bear the weight of one man, sometimes of several men 
upon the crests of the main dam, but not often at their 
extremities, where they are either more likely to be neg- 
lected, or where there has not yet been time for enough 
repairs to make them very firm. The crest line is gen- 
erally at the water level, or, in other words, is so evenly 
made upon the surface that the water, should there come 
a freshet, will overflow the dam at an even depth across 
its entire length. Possibly beavers know that the deepest 
water produces the strongest current, and avoid unnec- 
essary breakage by building an even crest. 

The mode of structure varies with the character of the 
stream. A great number of the dams are not built 
straight across their streams, but are made with a curve 
in some section of it. The curve is almost always found 
where the channel is deepest, and the current the most 
rapid. The convex side is generally presented to the 
current. This is a curious feature of the curve. It is 
doubtless the work of the beaver, whether designedly or 
not ; for the dam is as solid and as impenetrable at the 
curve as at any other section of the main part of it. If 
it were the work of the water alone, it would probably be 
sinuous in its character. The fact that the convexity is 
generally up stream, gives weight to the opinion that the 
beavers intended the curve to serve as a fortification 



THE BE A VER. 121 

against the irxcreased force of the water. Sometimes the 
convexity of the curve is down stream, and in such c^ses 
the violent flow of the water may have mastered the 
beaver's first intention. 

The stick dam requires the constant oversight of its 
builders. The repairs are so w^ell kept up that it seems 
as though it must be the case that any breach, or any 
weak spot in the structure must be attended to by the 
first beaver that notices it. Sometimes after a freshet, or 
after any serious accident has befallen the dam, several of 
them may be seen working together to restore the breach. 
They are as watchful lest harm should come to their 
fortifications as they are assiduous in effecting thorough 
repairs w^hen once those walls are broken. 

THE SOLID BANK DAM. 

The solid bank dam is in all cases an old one, being 
originally a stick dam, but grown solid by the gradual but 
continuous decay of vegetable substance, and the pack- 
ing of brushwood and mud. It is generally larger than 
the stick dam, because of its numerous repairs. At a 
distance it appears from its low^er face to be a very good 
stick dam, for so long as it is not deserted, fresh cut logs 
and sticks may be seen upon it. Sometimes, though not 
generally, the finer stuff is used in so great abundance as 
to make the lower face more nearly like the upper, and 
to present quite a smooth surface, with only here and 
there a log or pole protruding. The crests are generally 
wider than on stick dams. 

When a stick dam has become very perfect, and tfie 
body of w^ater in the pond quite deep, as repairs are still 
made upon it, a greater proportion of brush and small 
stuff and of earth are used. These being well intermixed 



132 WESTERN }VILD ANIMALS. 

form a coarse cement ; as more of these stuffs are added, 
the older cement is packed harder and harder, and by 
the continuation of such a process there comes to be the 
soh'd bank dam. A dam which I have often seen in the 
Lake Superior region has a growth of cedars upon it, 
which will average a foot in diameter: water falls over it 
at a height of six feet. This dam was made at the head 
of a creek, and all of its water came from one small 
spring. Many dams have a heavy growth of timber 
across the entire length of the dam, and the trees and 
undergrowth is so dense upon the crest that it is only by 
cutting away the brushwood that traps can be set upon 
them. 

Water cannot penetrate the solid bank of this species 
of dam ; the surplus water must therefore be allowed 
some other passage. To do this, a section of the dam, 
sometimes several feet in width, is so built as to be 
several inches lower than the main dam : this lower sec- 
tion is built against the main channel. Upon the lower 
face, outside of the solid wall, sticks and poles are 
placed in the open stick-work fashion, to prevent the 
rapid wear or breakage of the dam. In ordinary water 
the current divides a little above the dam, and flows over 
portions of the wings of the dam. In very high water, 
dams are frequently overflowed across the entire length, 
but are very seldom injured by it, as the provision for the 
discharge of the surplus water is very good, and always 
with reference to the possibilities of the stream. The 
solidity of the embankment and the structure of the 
sluices are the only features of the solid bank dam which 
distinguish it from the more common stick dam. 

A series of dams is often found upon a single stream. 
In the Chippewa country, in Wisconsin, at the head of 
Hay Creek I have seen nine dams ; the first and the last 



THE BE A VEIL - 123 

are about three-quarters of a mile apart. The first two 
or three, or lower dams, were summer dams. They all 
set water back to the preceding dam. The water fell 
about a foot over the first, over the ninth eight feet ; 
this one was at the head of the stream. 

Beavers generally build their dams upon such streams 
as rise back in the woods, or near to some timber, or 
streams that are near to other bodies of water in some 
timbered locality. They have an uncontrollable propen- 
sity to dam up running water, and they may often be 
seen damming up very small creeks, if by that means 
they can get nearer to some standing timber. 

In the summer they build a great many small and rude 
dams. The ponds which these make do not furnish them 
good water homes, but pleasant resorts, and good places 
for their summer and early fall cuttings. These dams are 
like the rude beginnings of the common stick dam and 
are called by trappers summer dams. There are no 
houses in them ; but there are holes in the banks where 
they lie. Sometimes they lie on the banks above them. 

Some have supposed that beavers fell trees across 
streams, to build their dams against them. There are 
some such, which are called fallen-tree dams ; but the 
building at such places is doubtless accidental ; for they 
do not lay poles and sticks across the streams, but parallel 
with the current, and even in cases where trees lie across 
the stream, the poles are placed in the usual manner. 

BEAVER LODGES.. 

As the structure of their fore paws would indicate, 
they are burrowing animals. Their houses are found 
upon and in the banks of lakes and rivers, and upon 
islands. They are all constructed upon the same princi- 



124 ' WESTERN WILD ANIMALS. 

pie and are called burrows or lodges. They are called, 
from their locations, island lodges, lake lodges, and bank 
lodges or burrows. There is no difference internally be- 
tween a lodge and a burrow ; the terms are used inter- 
changeably. All lodges are burrows ; but not all burrows 
are lodges. The burrow is the primitive home, the lodge 
the improved home. In the latter they reside ; into the 
former they run for safety, or at will for a short time. 
They do not generally stay in the burrow very much of 
the time. Burrows are always found where lodges are ; 
but they are also frequently found in the banks of tem- 
porary ponds. They sometimes make shallow holes upon 
these banks, and put grasses and other light stuff in them 
and lie down upon these soft beds. They seem to like 
such spots. 

Beavers are not as readily captured when in a burrow 
as when in a lodge ; because the burrow itself is not as 
easily found, there being no superficial evidence of its 
presence. The entrances to burrows and lodges are in 
all cases on the under side and come from the bed of the 
stream or pond. They use great skill in the making of 
them. They range from three to eight in number. There 
is rarely but one apartment to a lodge, and there is never 
more than one family in a single apartment. The floor 
of the chamber is always above high water mark, and is 
raised from six inches to two feet above the entrances ; 
it is smooth and hard, so hard that in cases where lodges 
have been opened for inspection, it is found not to yield 
to the weight of a I'Qan. 

The beds, which are made of grass and light brush- 
wood, are arranged around the center of the apartment, 
close to the wall. The chamber is circular in form ; the 
walls are hard and quite smooth. They are made of a 
cement similar to that composing the w^ater face of a 



THE BE A VEE. 135 

solid bank dam. The average size of the interior of a 
lodge is seven feet in diameter and three feet in height. 
The walls vary in thickness according to the age of the 
structure, increasing as they do with every annual repair. 
Externally the lodges vary in diameter from fifteen to 
twenty feet. The chamber has no ventilation except 
what it gets through the interstices of its coarse roofing. 
Sometimes when the ground is covered with snow, there 
will be upon the lodge what the trapper calls a chimney 
hole. This is simply a spot in the snow which has be- 
come melted by the warm breath of the animal finding 
its way through the roof. 

The external appearence of a lodge seems to the casual 
observer like a mere pile of sticks and dirt ; its symmet- 
rical dome-like shape, however, attracts the attention, and 
a closer examination reveals the fact that the sticks are 
so fastened together, and so surely held by the the mud, 
as to be very difficult to extricate. It is also a hard 
matter to break through the roof of a lodge. Every year 
just before winter sets in, they lay on fresh mud and 
sticks. This mud is soon frozen extremely hard, and 
makes of the roof an impenetrable shield, through which 
the Indian's arrow cannot pierce, nor the glutton thrust his 
claws. These houses are generally from ten to twenty 
rods above the dam. A favorite place for building them 
is upon a bend in the stream, probably because beavers 
prefer to live near to the deepest water. They seldom 
go out of their lodges during the winter, except to get 
their food, all of which is under cover of the water, and 
near their houses. 

Bank lodges are sometimes built close to the water, 
sometimes several rods from it ; the only difference be- 
tween the two is that between the entrances. The shape 
and direction of these is regulated by the relative position 



126 WESTERN WILD ANIMALS. 

of the lodge and the water. Beavers build their lodges 
upon islands when they can do so; because their isolation 
gives them increased protection. 

Burrows are frequently excavated under the roots of a 
tree, under a fallen tree, or under some rock. There are 
generally more burrows than lodges upon a pond, and 
they are numerous along the banks of their canals. I 
have known beavers, when driven from a pond and from 
their houses during the winter, to build them rude lodges 
in some snow bank. 

CANALS. 

The excavation of the canal by the beaver is both 
curious and remarkable. The plain object of it is to 
reach timber and to furnish a channel for its transpor- 
tation. As has been already observed, the beaver is an 
awkward traveler upon the land, but is an expert swim- 
mer. If any amount of timber that it wishes to use grows 
back from the shores of its pond, it would be a difficult 
task for it to reach the timber, and doubly difficult to 
drag it along upon the ground to the pond. The canal, 
therefore, furnishes both a pleasant route for travel and 
an easy method of labor. 

The observing trapper of a beaver country finds many 
evidences of the artificial character, and the beaver-like 
work of the canal. The following are some of these evi- 
dences : They are not fed by springs, as they have no 
where upon their entire length any current ; they are too 
much unlike other bodies of water in the marshes and 
low lands through which they are found ; their channels 
are too evenly cut to be the work of nature ; along the 
banks of newly cut canals, piles of fresh dirt are found ; 
it is common to find along the banks or walls of the 
canals and the bottoms. of them, the square cut ends of 



THE BE A VER. 127 

roots of trees, evidently the work of the beaver ; the 
canals often terminate abruptly on high ground, where 
there is not the first evidence of any spring or its origin ; 
the course of the canals evinces as much a practical de- 
sign as that of any ditch made by man. 

In structure they resembb ditches much more than 
canals; but their object is like that of the latter, that of 
cheap and easy transportation of heavy articles. 

They are usually cut through swampy grounds, and are 
fed by the waters of the surrounding marsh, by filtra- 
tion, or when cut through dry land, and from stream to 
stream, they are filled by the waters of those streams. 
They are frequently cut across the bend of a stream, 
evidently to shorten the distance of travel when carrying 
logs for building purposes. It is common to find dams 
built across the larger canals. This is done when the 
canal is run upon high ground, the dam holding the 
water at any considerable change in level, prevents the 
draining of the channel. 

They are about three feet wide, and three or four feet 
deep, and carry water varying in depth from twelve to 
twenty-four inches. Canals are frequently branched. 
In the fall of 1873 I saw a canal on the west branch of 
the Esconauba river, which was twenty-five rods long. It 
had doubtless just been completed : fresh dirt lay on 
both sides of the canal. The average depth was eighteen 
inches. Their object was to get back to some willows. 
They had four cords already sunk in the pond. 

It seems wonderful that any member of the brute 
creation should have planned and executed such work 
as did the beaver when it built the dam. Why not live 
in natural ponds, or in larger streams instead of going to 
the head waters of small rivers, and there be obliged by 
such difficult means to house and feed itself? If animals 



128 WESTERN WILD ANIMALS. 

have nothing to do but to eat, drink, and be merry, why 
should this one move back into the woods, and hke his 
neighbor, the pioneer, be obHged to chop and dig, chop 
and dig, for every foot of ground he gains, for every 
comfort he desires ? The beaver is no lazy lounger of 
aristocratic circles, no foolish slave to labor, but a happy 
worker, and the master of its field of labor; because it 
executes and also plans the work. It would be unjust to 
say that men who rack their brains to find out some new 
invention by which to lighten labor, that those who 
destroy plan after plan in order to find one after which 
to build for themselves the most convenient, and in 
every respect the most highly approved homes, are haters 
of labor. It is one thing to accept one's condition with 
cheerfulness, but it is another and a better thing for one 
to use willingly and effectively all of his God-given fac- 
ulties for the improvement of his condition. We expect 
men to use their reasoning powers, and blame them if 
they do not ; but we do not expect animals to exhibit 
the power of true intelligence, and when we find one that 
comes so near to it, and how near it is, who shall say } 
we look with wonder. The erection of the dam itself 
imprints within our hearts surprise and admiration, but 
its other works underscore that surprise, and make our 
admiration doubly emphatic. 

MEADOWS. 

Beaver meadows are swamps which are adjacent to 
their ponds, and are the result of the rise and gradual 
overflow of these ponds. As dams are continually re- 
paired, and consequently enlarged, the depth of the pond 
is proportionally increased. If the stream upon which 
the pond was built lay upon low land, when the pond has 



THE BEAVER. 129 

become deep the land is inundated far out beyond the 
original bank of the stream ; the vegetation is destroyed, 
and in course of time the large trees, becoming decayed, 
fall : thus there comes to be a very fertile soil for the 
growth of a swamp vegetation. When land once dry has 
become thus transformed, it receives the name just given. 

BEAVER SLIDES. 

Vv'hat is known as a " beaver slide " is a beaten path 
on an inclined plane, found upon the banks of their 
ponds or streams. If beavers can find a natural slide of 
land, at a point close to deep water, they use it, other- 
wise they construct one. Some of the streams which 
they inhabit have vertical banks, several feet high. Upon 
such a stream they are obliged to excavate their slides, 
which in these cases serve as their only runways from 
the stream. Upon streams which have well-defined 
banks, and knolls here and there close to the water, 
beavers have their slides from these knolls. They are 
often seen lying upon the ground just above the slide, 
basking in the sunlight, and rolling and tumbling about 
as if it were great sport, and evidently enjoying them- 
selves as much as a family of kittens at play. They also 
seem to enjoy plunging into the water from the slides. 

Upon the banks of any body of water inhabited by 
beavers may be seen their trails. These in many cases 
become by long use well beaten. They are not numerous 
far from the shore ; for if the timber is far off canals are 
constructed, and no trail is made. 

There are places along beaver streams called by hunters 
feeding beds. They are simply those places where 
beavers are in the habit of eating, and where they have 
left the sticks, the bark of which they have eaten. 

9 



130 WESTERN WILD ANIMALS. 

They generally feed in water two or three inches deep. 
The piles of sticks which they throw out sometimes get 
to be very large. 

There are also musk beds near the water, which in 
their appearance more nearly resemble a miniature lodge. 
When a beaver has excreted any of its musk, or what is 
generally known as castoreum, it covers it with earth and 
leaves. Beavers from difterent lodges are attracted to 
the spot by the scent, and as every one covers its own 
excretion, the bed, or mound, comes in time to be 
quite large. They use their tails to pack and smooth 
the leaves and dirt which they put upon the heap. 
They delight in playing and in resting upon their musk 
beds. 

The beaver is exceedingly shy, and though not as cun- 
ning as some animals, its amphibious nature gives it an 
advantage over its pursuer in almost every case. vSome- 
times, though rarely, a whole family may be caught 
within a short space of time. Its sense of smell is acute, 
and no animal is more afraid of the scent of man than 
this one. Great precaution is therefore necessary in the 
pursuit of this wary creature. 

If any man v/ere to walk around upon the path of a 
beaver, where it is at work upon a dam, it would doubt- 
less leave its work for a time ; it will be gone for a week 
or two, or more, and if the dam had just been com- 
menced, they will all be very likely to leave it ; and will, 
if they choose, build one in another place. Careless and 
inexperienced trappers will walk upon a slide or castor 
bed when setting their traps, and yet expect the beaver to 
come to the bait just as soon as if his foot had not 
touched the spot. Care should be used not to take un- 
necessary steps when setting a trap on the land. It 
would be impossible to set a trap well and the place still 



THE BE A YER. 131 

be uninfected by the scent of man ; but -when the trap 
has been set let the trapper leave the place for a week or 
ten da)^s, and not expect to catch his game within that 
time. If the trapper goes daily to see if the animal is 
caught, he decreases by every visit the chance of catch- 
ing his game. It will doubtless return after a few days, 
and if the scent has entirely disappeared will probably 
spring the trap. 

Trails, musk-beds, and feed-beds are all of them good 
places for setting a trap. The musk-beds are the best 
places for fall and spring trapping, when the water is not 
frozen. Trappers look for the feed-beds a little above 
the dams, near the lodges. In setting traps very near 
the water or very near the land, or upon dams, it is best 
for the trapper to go in a boat, if he can do so ; but even 
then he should be careful not to handle the limbs of trees 
or anything that will by the scent reveal to the beaver his 
presence. When trapping on shallow streams, hunters 
frequently wear long rubber boots, and wade ; this plan 
is advisable. 

The crest of a solid bank dam is one of the best places 
for trapping. A small breach should be made upon one 
of the runways, which are easily found in the crest; the 
trap should be concealed beneath the breach ; the chain 
attached should be fastened in deep water. The ever 
watchful creature becoming aware of the loss of water 
from the pond will come at night to make the necessary 
repairs. As soon as "entrapped it will plunge into the 
pond to escape, but being held by the chain is drowned. 
When disturbed by any means, beavers have a habit of 
running up and down a stream, like one pacing a floor in 
great excitement. It is well to set some traps on the 
banks, while others are set upon the dams ; for if they 
have been disturbed by those on the land, they will run 



132 WESTERN' WILD ANIMALS. 

up and down the stream and over the dams, and thus 
increase the chance of capture. 

The sliding pole or the spring pole is used with good 
effect in beaver trapping. It is not advisable to set traps 
at the entrances of lodges, especially if stakes are driven 
into the ground to oblige them to enter through a narrow 
pass ; for while swimming the fore feet are laid back upon 
the body, and before the hind legs have reached the trap, 
the body, which is too broad to be caught by the jaws, 
has sprung the trap. 

Traps are sometimes set where they draw in their tim- 
ber. It is not a very good way, as it is likely to disturb 
the whole family, and when all are disturbed they will 
leave. 

The best method for winter trapping is to cut a hole 
in the ice a little above the house, and to insert several 
fresh-cut sticks ; they will be sure to come after them, 
as they prefer them to any of the old or possibly sour 
sticks of their winter supply. The end of a dry stick 
should be slipped through the ring of a trap chain, and 
driven into the bottom of the stream ; the upper end 
should come above the surface of the ice. The trap 
should be dropped into the water, and placed inside of 
the coop of fresh-cut sticks. The dry stick will soon be 
frozen in at the top. The beaver will try to loosen the 
stick, or to cut it off at the bottom and at the top, and 
in this effort and the effort to carry off the other sticks it 
will doubtless spring the trap. The unfortunate animal 
will be caught by one of the hind feet, for the fore feet 
are engaged in pulling upon the stick. If the water is 
too deep for the stake to be dl"iven down straight, a larger 
hole should be cut in the ice and a forked stick put in 
in a slanting manner, and the trap placed on the fork 
about a foot beneath the surface. Fourteen inches is a 



TEE BEA VEF,. 13;J 

good depth of water for the preceding mode of trapping, 
a greater depth for this method. The same principle is 
sometimes carried out, but where the pole is fastened by 
being stuck into the bank. If this last method is used, 
it may be done the most effectively where the ground is 
not frozen at all or not frozen hard. 

If bait is used, it should be the musk of the beaver, as 
there is nothing better than that to attract the animal, and 
it is easily obtained. I generally take the musk sac, and 
squeezing some of the musk out onto my paddle spread 
it upon the musk bed. 



134 WESTEBN- WILD ANUIALS. 



xrx. 

SPECKLED TROUT. 



BY W. P. CLARKE. 

The American Brook Trout (salmon fontinalis) is 
found in the northern portion of the United States and 
in Canada, and his habitat extends from Maine to Cali- 
fornia. Given clear, cold, soft water, flowing swiftly over 
a gravelly or rocky bed, and the trout abounds and flour- 
ishes; but he abhors mud, and warm, stagnant, or hard 
water. The troutjs found as far south as the mountain- 
ous regions of North Carolina, and is especially abundant 
in the small streams of the Rocky Mountains. Their 
weight as ordinarily caught varies from four ounces to a 
pound, while in some localities they occasionally grow to 
the weight of three or four pounds. 

The spawning season of the trout, like the whole salmon 
family, is in the fall, in the months of October and 
November. As they will not take the bait until the 
water is clear from the melting snow, the season for fish-, 
ing is during the months of May, June, July and August. 
None should be taken later than the first of September. 
There are various modes of catching them, but all 
depend upon the fact that the trout is blessed with a 
voracious appetite. The scientific angler equips himself 
with a fancy rod, a fine gut line, a patent reel, and a 
multitude of artificial flies, and in favorable localities 
uses these to good advantage. But there are many 



SPECKLED TROUT. 135 

streams in vrhich the speckled beauties are swarminp;, 
where this sort of fibhing is impossible. In the newer 
portions cf the country, where the trout are now 
the most abundant, the streams are so overgrown with 
trees and bushes that fly-fishing is, to say the least, very 
difficult. Our directions for catching this beautiful and 
gamey fish will be given rather to the amateur and the 
tourist than to the scientific sportsman ; and may, 
perhaps, prove valuable to those who fish for profit. For 
fishing in the larger streams, a long, light pole of cane or 
other suitable material is needed, but in the small brooks 
Avhere bushes overhang the water, a light sapling about 
eight feet long is better. A linen line, strong but small, 
tipped with about twelve inches of gut, called a '* snell,'' a 
supply of No. I Limerick hooks, and a light fish-basket 
form the needed outfit. 

For bait, worms may be, and are very generally used, 
but they are too bothersome to handle. Grasshoppers 
or any kind of fresh meat will answer, or the ventral fin, or 
gullet of the trout. But the best bait, when obtainable, 
is the chub, or the shiner. The upper part of the chub is 
a leaden color, and this cut into pieces three-quarters of 
an inch long, is greedily taken by the trout, and is easily 
handled. In large streams, during low water and hot 
weather, the trout congregate at the mouths of little 
brooks, and where springs make in, seeking these places 
for the cooler water. At such times it is useless to fish 
elsewhere. In a fair stage of water, however, you should 
not fail to try the riffles at the foot of every little rapid, as 
the trout often congregate in large numbers at such 
places. In the small brooks they will be found in the 
deeper holes in the bends of the stream, and under over- 
hanging banks, logs and bushes, seeking these places for 
shade. 



136 WESTERN WILD ANUTALS. 

Often the best mode of fishing in these brooks is tO' 
wade down the middle of the stream, keeping the bait 
well in advance of you. When the water begins to rise 
after a low stage, the trout move up stream, and con- 
tinue this until after the spaw^ning season, when they 
begin to run down again. In fishing for trout the bait 
should never be allowed to rest, but should be constantly 
but gently kept in motion. In approaching the points in 
the stream where you expect to find fish, caution should 
be observed. A loud noise, breaking a dead limb, loud 
talking, or, if in plain sight, quick movements will often 
alarm the shy fellov/s, and cause them to dart away. 
Notwithstanding their shyness, however, a slight noise and 
agitation in the water will often attract them from a con- 
siderable distance. In brook fixshing, if the trout does 
not bite after making tv/o or three casts, you may as well 
move on, for he is either not there, or is not in the mood 
to take the bait. On larger streams, when fishing in deep 
water and in a favorable locality, it will often pay to 
wx'rk ten minutes in a place without a bite, as they will 
sometimes refuse to notice the bait until coaxed awhile. 

Very good fishing is often found during the v/inter in 
the little lakes, through or into which trout streams flow, 
by merely cutting a hole through the ice and dropping in 
your hook. 

To preserve the best flavor of this best of all fresh 
water fish, they should be dressed soon after catching. 
In hot weather you should stop once in two hours, or 
oftener, and by slitting the fish open on the belly from 
the throat to the vent, and, cutting loose the gullet, re- 
m.ove the entrails and wash the cavity thoroughly. 

Should you wish to preserve them overnight, or longer,, 
and have not ice, rinse them again in cold water, spread 
them upon a board covered with freshly cut grass, raised 



SPECKLED TROUT. Vdl 

from the ground so as to allow a free circulation of 
air. Lay them upon the grass so that they will not touch 
each other, cover an inch or two deep with grass, and 
sprinkle with water. You will find them in the morning 
fresh and hard, and may keep them some time longer by 
repeating the process. 

As to good localities for this sport, they are numerous 
and well known. We will only mention one, which we 
have tested personally, and which, since the tide of summer 
travel has set so strongly toward Lake su])erior, will be 
found convenient to many. 

The tourist, landing at Marquette or at Escanaba, will 
doubtless visit the iron mines at Negaunee. South from 
there, tv/enty-two miles by rail, is Smith's Mine Station. 
There he will find a competent guide and mentor in the 
person of some hunter or trapper, preferably " David " 
Cartwright, or " Uncle " Clemens, who will take him in 
charge. 

I cannot, perhaps, better illustrate the opportunities for 
sport in that locality than by relating somewhat of my 
own experience. 

It was a bright morning in July that '' David " and 
" Uncle Clemens," together with my friend Paul and 
myself, who were stopping for a few weeks with them, 
left our shanty to go about three miles to a little brook 
to catch fish. About three-fourths of a mile above its 
mouth a family of beavers had built a dam. We began 
fishing above this dam, where the stream was about eight 
feet wide, and in the slack water we found glorious sport. 
The speckled beauties took our bait of fresh venison 
voraciously, and we caught in two instances over thirty 
from a single hole. 

We began fishing at eight a. m., stopped an hour for din- 
ner, and quit at two p. m., having caught in all one hundred 



138 WESTEEX WILD ANIMAL.^. 

and eighty-six trout, averaging about one-fourth of a 
pound in weight, eighty-eight of which I caught myself. 
Some ten days after, we visited the same stream, with 
nearly as good success. Three weeks spent in that 
healthful and exhilarating atmosphere, engaged in this 
exciting sport, brought renewed vigor to body and mind, 
and fitted us to resume the duties of life with strength 
and energy. 



PART II. 
NARRATIVES OF PERSONAL ADVENTURE, 



I. 

MY FIRST FOX HUNT. 



*' There's a trick in all trades," and there's always 
something profitable for one to learn. There's some- 
thing for hunters to learn, not that they may be tricky, 
but that they may be successful. I do not know that 
they are proverbially tricky; but they are said to be 
credulous fellows, and as wild in some of their notions as 
are their lives in the woods, as extravagant in their story- 
telling as they are, when in the woods, destitute of the 
refinements of cultured society. There's much to be 
learned in the practical experience of the v/oodsman's 
life. There are the general principles of wood-craft to 
be understood, and there's progress to be made by way 
of improved methods of hunting and trapping. Besides 
this, just as surely as fear makes a slave of a man, to 
the extent of his cowardice, just so surely is a practical 
woodsman unsuccessful in his business in so far as his 
fear is the result of ignorance of the homes and habits of 
animals among which he travels. 

My first experience in fox-hunting furnishes a good 
basis upon which to rest these remarks. I was but a 
lad, and hunted a whole day to catch a fox, but without 
success. The fox, true to its prevailing instinct, was too 
cunning for me. I came very near freezing to death that 
day, not as so many do, when they say of it, "I thought 
I should die, I was so cold," but near night I was really 



143 WESTERN WILD ANIMALS. 

in a dying condition, because of the exposures of the day. 
I did not know it at the time. I knew but little of the 
symptoms attendant upon one when literally freezing to 
death, and I was ignorant of the best methods of self- 
protection, when subject to severe exposures. I was like^ 
the little boy, who said of himself after he had eaten for- 
bidden fruit, lest it should make him so sick that he 
would die, " I did eat some and I didn't die any." I froze 
some, but I didn't die any; neither have I ceased to 
laugh at the fun I had, followed later in the day by such 
mountains of trouble as I thought were falling upon me. 
I have not forgotten the solemn pledge I made with 
myself, never to go out hunting again. The morning 
found me well. My determination not to hunt again had 
fled with the darkness of the night, and my zeal for a 
renewal of the chase was as bright as the light. 



AT FIRST BEAR HU^^T. 143 



11. 

MY FIRST BEAR HUNT. 



In 1S33 I went to visit an uncle of mine, who lived in 
Allegany county, New York. He was seventy years old, 
but had not yet given up his habit of hunting. He asked 
me one day to go out deer-hunting v\'ith him. I borrowed 
an old-fashioned flint lock fowling piece, and started out 
for some fun and some game. 

My uncle told me to go up onto the hill, and he would 
hunt about its base, for by that means we might both of 
us get a shot at a deer. If he should see one he might 
drive it towards me, or I might drive one towards him. 
I left him at the foot of the hill. 

It had been raining ; but the rain had ceased and the 
wind was blowing very hard. I went on, possibly a mile 
and a half, watching on all sides of me, and full of expec- 
tation. I was listening too ; I didn't know for vrhat 
exactly. I suppose I was simply making the best use of 
my senses. I loved the woods. My hopes were high of 
some day becoming an expert in the art of catching the 
fish of the sea, the fowls of the air, and the wild beasts of 
the forest or field. My prospective field of action was 
broad ; but I did not think it was too broad for success- 
ful work. I was fast learning, and with the exhilaration 
of my thoughts, I pressed my way up and on. I said I 
Avas listening. I told the truth ; but I did not tell )'0u 
that there was an undercurrent of tremulousness, which I 
suspected, and partially owned to myself, was the out- 



144 WESTERN- WILD AjUUIALS. 

growth of fear, and of inability to meet any bestial foe. 
I heard a growling. I thought it must be a bear. I 
knew that a deer does not growl, but that bears do. 
But I said, "I'll kill it." I advanced towards the growl- 
ing bear, and as I neared it I knew there must be two 
of them. I prepared myself for a severe engagement. 
I went on further. I knew that the bears were a little 
over the hill. I proceeded with great caution and little 
noise, lest I should bring old bruin from his den, and 
having advanced but a few steps I decided that there 
were three or four of them. Worse and worse. My next 
resolve was to get my uncle to help me. I crawled back 
a few rods, and hoping by this time that they would not 
hear me run, I went on some fifteen or twenty rods to 
call to him to come. But at that moment I heard the 
growling close behind me. I was terribly frightened. 
What should I do ? What could I do ? What could any 
one do under such circumstances ? Three or four bears 
close at your heels and you standing still ! I know you 
wouldn't stand it. I didn't either. I took to my heels. 
Having run very fast, I supposed I had gained so much 
upon my pursuers, that I could safely give one backward 
glance to see how they looked. My imagination was 
doing its work fast ; it had so absorbed my attention that 
my eyes were almost blinded to the spectacle before me. 
I looked again. I listened. This time I thought the 
noise proceeded from a tree-top. The bears could not 
have been so slow in running as I supposed, and one of 
them must be playing sharp on me, and was just ready to 
lighten my luckless head. Oh dear! Oh dear ! What 
should I do ? I was a dead man, I knew I was. Just then 
Dame Nature came to my relief and snapped the cords in 
my ears, so tightly strung by my imagination, and removed 
the film from my eyes, spread over them by the same 



MY FIRST BEAR HUNT. 145 

visionary thing. This she did that I might, untrammeled 
by my fears, help my own self like a man. Close behind 
me, and in close proximity to each other, there were two 
lofty pine trees. There sat, like a fate watching my flying 
steps, the infuriate wind raging through their branches. 
'Twas the first bear I had ever killed, and, from that 
day to this I have never been killed by a bear. 



146 WESTERN WILD ANIMALS. 

III. 
HUNTING IN ALLEGANY CO., NEW YORK. 



Soon after my bear scare I had another green-horn 
experience of a different nature. I had my first en- 
counter with a hedge hog. I was badly frightened. I 
had never seen one, and when a Mr. Albright, who was 
near me in the woods, asked me what I shot at I told him 
I didn't know, unless it was the devil. Of course I did 
not kill it. Mr. A., if I am not mistaken, grew fat on his 
laughter at my performances. The hedge hog is seldom 
afraid of an antagonist, and why should it be, since it is 
so well armed for self defense.^ When meeting an 
enemy it will put its head down between its fore legs, its 
quills, meantime, pointing in all directions. Nothing can 
touch one of them without getting a sharp shower, not 
as when it rains pitch-forks, as some roughs would have 
you think, but literally a sharp, smart shower of quills. 
It will sometimes strike with the tail, and drive the quills 
deep into one's flesh. It lives on hemlock boughs, 
maple twigs and bark, and other wood. It is a great pest 
about a hunter's camp ; for it will gnaw almost anything 
that can be found in a camp home. 

Mr. A. kindly notified me that it would be better for 
me to keep by him, unless I was acquainted with the 
woods. We were only a little ways apart as we went on ; 
soon I heard something in the brush and called to Mr. 
A., saying that there was a wolf close by. We turned 
one side to find the wolf, and found that my wolf made a 
deer's track. I scarcely knew one thing from another of 



HUNTTNG IN ALLEGANY CO., N. Y. 147 

all that creeps or roams about the woods. I saw no other 
game that day. 

I had heard that a man could run down a deer and 
catch it. Some time after the day described above, when 
the snow was about a foot deep, I determined to test the 
matter. I started on my chase before it was fairly light. 
I soon saw a deer's track, and followed it for a long, long 
time, paying no attention to anything but the track. I 
went over hills and across valleys, and in the afternoon I 
came in sight of the deer. About the middle of the 
afternoon I heard a gun, and soon after found the deer 
had made a sudden turn. There was blood upon the 
track.. A man coming up just then wanted to know if I 
was the wolf that had been chasing the deer so long. He 
asked some questions pertaining to myself, and advised 
me, if I was unacquainted with the woods, to ^o down to 
a certain creek and follow it until I should come to a 
settlement, and there take the road to my home. I had 
given him a sharp looking at, and had decided that I was 
afraid of him, and that I should take my own course. 
He was bare headed, and had on ill-looking clothes : 
he looked pretty rough, and was, withal, a little cross- 
eyed. I doubted his ability to give me straight directions. 
I afterwards learned that he was a very fine man. I went 
according to his directions until out of his sight, then I 
took the road which I thought was the right one to take. 
I traveled until it was dark, and was still in the woods. 
Having decided that I must spend the night in the woods, 
I attempted to build me a fire. I had put a tow and 
linen frock over my clothes to make me the color of the 
trees. Very wet snow hung on the bushes, and would fall 
onto me as I touched them in passing along. My clothes 
had, therefore, become very wet. I succeeded in finding 
a dry tree of which to make my fire; but I had nothing 



148 WMSTJ£EN WILD ANIMALS. 

that I could use for kindling except a piece of the tow 
cloth, and I must set fire to it with gunpowder. But the 
cloth was wet; the powder was wet, and so was my gun. 
I could do nothing of the sort. I did not know my 
whereabouts. 'Twas useless to advance at such rates. 
Just then the clouds broke away : I took my back track 
and after reaching the place where I had met the hunter 
of whom I was afraid, I followed his directions. I found 
the creek and followed it. There was a goad deal of 
fallen timber upon it ; but as I dared not lose sight of its 
waters I walked along at a slow and tiresome rate. After 
a time I reached a clearing and saw a log house. 1 rapped 
at the door After I had been admitted to the room 
where there was a fire still burning, and had been induced 
to tell something of the haps and mishaps of my day in 
the woods, I was told to help myself to something to eat, 
that I- should find it in such and such a place : after 
finishing a hearty meal, for I had had nothing to eat since 
sunrise, I laid myself down on the floor to sleep. In the 
morning I went home, and I didn't care to chase a deer 
again. 

On my first attempt at deer shooting I was seized with 
what hunters call " buck fever," and I did not kill my 
deer. This fever, so called, is nothing more nor less than 
a feverish agitation which is so apt to overpower young 
hunters more particularly, that they cannot, even under 
the most favorable circumstances, control their nerves 
enough to manage a gun. 

In the fall of 1834, having bought me a small but good 
rifle, I went out on the Honeoye creek with others to 
' watch a deer lick. The Indians had just left the lick, 
and their fire was still burning. Our chance seemed 
poor, but we determined to do the best we could. I was 
left for a time to watch the lick, while some of the men 



HUNTING IN ALLEGANY CO., N Y. 149 

should go to find another one. I had been watching 
about an hour when I heard something behind me, and 
on turning my head I saw tViree deer. They were not 
looking at me. I fired at them and they ran off. I sup- 
posed I had not hurt any of them, I reloaded my gun 
and went up to the place where the deer were standing 
when I shot at them, and found by the hair that was 
lying on the ground, and by the blood upon their tracks, 
that I must have hit one of them. Do you see how inde- 
pendent young hunters suddenly become, and how angry 
they will get when dictated ? One of my comrades, seeing 
me, came to me, and, finding that I had wounded a deer, 
told me to go back and watch the lick, and he would go 
on and find the animal ; for he was used to it, and I, 
poor me ! was not. I told him to go and watch the lick 
himself, if. he wanted it done ; I was abundantly able to 
look after my own game, and without his help. I went 
on a few rods and found my deer dead. I had shot it 
through the heart. It \yas the first one I had ever killed, 
and I was, of course, hunter-like, delighted with my success. 
A few weeks after killing my first deer I was anxious 
to go again to the lick to watch for them. I v\as then 
afraid to be alone in the woods at night ; but as I could 
not get any one to go with me I went on alone, deter- 
mined to learn to be courageous and to be a good deer 
slayer. The night was very bright. Soon after the sun 
had set I saw what I thought was a deer. Aiming as best 
I could, I fired my gun and the creature went on up the 
creek, crossed it, and went up onto the hillside, which 
was there very steep. 1 heard it making a good deal of 
noise, and in my excitement in reloading my gun I broke 
the rod and it was, as it seemed to me, a long time before 
I was ready to shoot at it again. On looking up the 
creek again, I saw anotlier creature like tiie first. I fired 



150 WESTERN WILL ANJMAL^i. 

at it, and with the same result as before. Supposing that 
I had not struck my game, I sat down to watch for one 
that I could kill. The gnats were so troublesome, that 
after a little while I covered my head with a blanket 
which I had with me, and lay down. I slept, but was 
after a time wakened by a noise close to my head. I saw 
another deer, fired at it, and, like its predecessors, it ran 
up the creek. This time I thought 'twas my turn to ^o ; 
so I followed up the creek and the bank where they had 
all gone. As I was climbing the hill, a deer started to 
come towards me. I picked up a stone to throw at it ; 
for I had left my gun behind me. I do not need to tell 
you that I was a greenhorn hunter, you know it already. 
As the deer passed me I struck it, and it fell into the 
water. I had already used my last ball. I caught the 
animal by the head and held it under the water as long as 
it kicked ; then I drew it out upon the land. I had no 
knife with me, as of course I should have had. In the 
morning I got one. I also found then that one of the 
others was dead, and that the third one was badly 
wounded. I killed it, and cutting off the saddles I took 
them home. 

I killed one or two more deer, then I lay out one rainy 
night and took such a cold that I came near to losing my 
life. As soon as I was able to be out again, I one day 
shot three ducks at one shot. On going into the water 
to get my game, I again took cold and was sick for a long 
time in consequence of it. The winter found me in debt. 
I had never earned anything by hunting, and yet I did 
not really feel able to hunt for pleasure. As I was one 
day turned off from my work by a snow-storm, I took 
my dog and went out to catch a fox. I soon found a fox 
track, and when I had started up the little fellow I set 
the dog upon it. He ran about a mile and caught it. I 



HUNTTNG IN ALLEGANY CO., N. Y. 151 

could find a good [market for fox skins, and I therefore 
continued through the winter hunting them. I got a 
dollar and a half or a dollar and seventy-five cents a 
piece for the skins. I caught two or three almost every- 
day, and after a time I paid- up my indebtedness. I owed 
no man a dollar. I had found what I took to be my 
calling, and determined to hunt for a living, whenever I 
could do it to advantage. I had also caught during the 
winter a good many coons, muskrats and mink. 

Many claim that wolves will not touch a fox. This is 
a mistake ; they will. I was one day following a fox, 
and three wolves came onto the track. I followed the 
four about a mile when one wolf turned off to the right of 
the track ; another turned to the left, and the third kept 
upon the track. They ran in this way sixty or seventy 
rods, and the two outside ones came back onto the track, 
and closing together they fell upon the fox and tore it to 
pieces. There was nothing left of it, but a little of the 
fur. Another time I was following a fox and a wolf came 
ui3on the fox. The latter went into a hollow basswood 
tree. It was snowing, and I knew that the wolf had not 
been gone away long. I cut down the tree and got the 
fox. I once found a fox in a hollow log, and know that 
a wolf had been there and had tried to get it. 

My dog was a cross between a newfoundland, a l5lood- 
hound, and a greyhound. While I had him, I never lost 
a wounded deer. I have aho taken him a great many 
times to find wounded animals for others when they could 
not find them. 

A young man from Massachusetts who had never 
seen a deer was one time visiting me and wanted me 
to take him into the woods with me that he might see 
one. I said to him after we had started out, that if he 
would go up the hill to which we had come, and would 



152 WESTERN WILD ANIMALS. 

get into a sugar-trough which he would find at a certain 
place, for I did not dare to trust him to stand on the 
ground, for the fallen leaves made the woods "noisy," as 
the hunters say, I thought I could scare one up to go 
past him. I told him when to shoot it. As I reached a 
place where I thought I should find them, I saw five deer 
running just as I had hoped they would. Well, I thought, 
he will surely see a deer this day. I fired my gun, and 
called to him to be on the watch. I reloaded my gun 
and went on, hoping to get another shot at them. Hear- 
ing nothing from him, I thought possibly he had not seen 
them, and on nearing him I saw, — well, — the old lady 
had it about right when she said, "We all have our 
queers," Some of those queers we overcome by experi- 
ence, and some of them are never bettered by this hard 
master; and, again, some of our queers that come of 
inexperience are strangely alike in many people. I saw 
him, hat in one hand, and gun in the other, flying in hot 
haste after the fleet creatures. I asked why was all this } 
He saw them and when they were within a few rods of 
him they turned about to see what had frightened them. 
He thought he could catch them, and forgetting that he 
had a gun, he started with it, as I have described, after 
them. He did see some deer and thought them the 
handsdmest. creatures he had ever seen. 

After that, another young man who had never seen a 
deer, came to see me. My directions to him were quite 
similar to those given to the one just referred to. Very 
soon T heard his gun, and on going to him I found him 
with his coat off, and working for dear life to reload his 
gun. He said there Avere two lying near him, and that 
he had shot one of them through the middle of the body. 
He offered to get the dog, for we would need him- if I 
•would load the gun ; he was so excited that he could not 



HUNTING IN ALLEGANY CO., N Y. 153 

do it. I found the deer about twelve rods from where he 
had shot it. It was dead ; he had shot it through the 
heart. When he came back with the dog and learned 
that he had killed the deer, he jumped about like a crazy 
fellow, and, shouting at the top of his voice, gave utter- 
ance to some not so reverential cries of gratitude which 
we will not here repeat. He afterwards went with nie on 
a fox hunt and then gave my dog, whose sagacity he had 
disparaged, all the credit I could ask one to give to such 
a faithful and efficient huntsman's dog. In a deer hunt,, 
which I had soon after that fox hunt, by an accidental 
shot I crippled my dog; but it lived and did me good 
service many a day. 

The first time that 1 left my home to hunt, I went into 
Pennsylvania. There Mere several men with me. We 
went into a rough country, about seventy-five miles from 
home ; but it was a good country for a hunter and trap- 
per. We hired a man to carr)' us a^ far into the \\'Oods 
as he could conveniently. About as soon as we were 
well fixed for camping in the woods, some of the men 
became homesick and wanted to turn about at once. 
There were bears, wolves, panthers, martens, otters, mink, 
the Virginian deer and the elk, and other game in abun- 
dance, and it was very foolish for any men to leave such 
a place, if they wished to become practically successful 
as woodsmen — more than foolish ; it was, as it will always 
be under similar circumstances, impossible for them to 
succeed at such rates. Hunters should be as diligent m 
business as any other class of men, if they wish to suc- 
ceed, and it is my opinion that more discredit is brought 
upon woodcraft by a want of judicious persistence in the 
business than in any other way. I came into business 
relations with a man, during the last season of my hunting 
in Allegany county, who very soon became tired of the 



154 WESTERN WILD ANIMALS. 

business we were doing, and who wanted me to go on 
with it alone, and let him spend his time in hunting. 
The arrangement was made as he proposed ; but, for 
lack of good management in his hunts, when he left it 
some weeks after, and I also stopped my work, it so hap- 
pened that he was one deer behind me. In 1841 I did 
my last hunting in York State. 



AN ADVENTURE WITH A WOLF. 155 



IV. 
AN ADVENTURE WITH A WOLF. 



In 1842 I moved into Jeiferson county, Wisconsin, into 
a heavy timbered section, known as Bark Woods. There 
was no settlement there at the time, and no roads. I 
built me a house on an Indian trail. The wolves were 
then more numerous than I have ever known them to be 
elsewhere. W^e had to keep all of our young stock shut 
up, to keep them from the wolves. It was not uncommon 
for these fierce creatures to chase a dog to the door of 
the house, which, by the way, was not furnished with 
doors, only blankets stretched across the door-way. 

The first winter that I lived there, when it was one 
day snowing, and the ground already had six or eight 
inches of snow upon it, I took a trap and some pieces of 
venison and went out onto the trail about sixty rods from 
the house. I set my trap upon the trail and returned. 
At midnight we heard wolves howling unusually loud, 
possibly the loudest I had ever heard them. I rose early 
and found that a wolf had carried off my trap. I went 
home, got a chalk line, a rope, my dog, and I got my 
neighbor, a Mr. Thomas, to go with me and help to get 
the wolf home alive. I wanted to do this because some 
of my neighbors, who had recently moved into our set- 
tlement, had never seen a wolf. We folloAved the track 
for a half mile, when we found the wolf lying by the 
roots of an old upturned tree. This tree lay by the edge 
of a thick tamarack swamp. The chain was broken, but 



156 WESTERJSr WILD ANIMALS. 

the clog was hitched. Thirteen wolves had followed the 
one which was entrapped. When we came in sight of 
him I saw him go into the swamp. He had heard us. 
I set the dogs on him, and ran on myself as fast as 
possi])le. I had outrun Mr. Thomas. The wolf had 
whipped the dogs, so I was there to face the dcTiger as it 
might come. It did come. The dogs turned about and 
ran towards me : the wolf followed up the dogs. I caught 
hold of a little tamarack tree, and broke it off by the 
roots, which were rotted : the top was dry and sound. 
As the wolf came in reach of me 1 struck him on the 
back of the neck. He fell over a tamarack root, and, as 
he fell, I put my tamarack pole over his body, fastening 
the further end of the pole under the root. I held my 
wolf there, as in a vice. Mr. Thomas took my place and 
held the pole down, while I took my line and tied his 
mouth. I then put the rope around his neck, and I tied 
his feet together. T put him upon my back and started 
homeward, a sort of soldier, with a knapsack upon my 
back. I felt the wolf squiiming about, and I squirmed 
too, as I felt his cold nose on the back of my neck, even 
though I knew that his mouth was fastened. I carried 
him home, and called my friends in to see the new arrival. 
It was so cold they did not come until the following 
day. I therefore tied him up securely and put him at the 
end of the house to keep him over night. In the morn- 
ing I found that his legs, his ears, and his nose were 
frozen I took the line off of his mouth, and carried 
him into the house and put him into the vv^ood-box. He 
was apparently pretty near dead. I went to hurry ray 
neighbors lest he should die. While I was gone he got 
warm and conmienced to look about the room. This 
was not to be borne by the inmates of the room. Mrs. 
C. yelled at the top of her voice, and he curled down in 



AN ADVEM'UUE WITJI A WOLF. 157 

the box. By this means she kept hmi within bounds, 
while the little five year old boy ran for Mr. Thomas to 
come and take care of the wolf. When he came he 
pulled him out of the box by a rope, and dragged him 
out of the house. As the wolf passed the door he struck 
his teeth into a log, (the house was made of logs,) and 
tearing off the bark, cut into the log so deep that the 
marks of it could be seen for a dozen years. AVhen I 
reached my home, and my neighbors with me, we put 
three dogs upon him. He v.hipped them all, and one of 
them he almost killed. 

This wolf was one of the Timber Wolves, the largest 
species known, except the Rocky Mountain White, or 
the Buffalo ^^'olf. This individual wolf v/as an exception 
to his family, in this respect,— that he was not very tame 
when entrapped. I killed him. He was two feet and 
eight inches tall at the shoulders. He weighed seventy 
pounds. 



158 WESTERN WILD ANIMALS. 



V. 
TRAPPING IN JEFFERSON CO., WISCONSIN. 



My home in southern Wiscdnsm was in the town of 
Sullivan, or what is known as Bark Woods. There were 
but three or four families there when I settled in the 
town. The country was, however, thickly settled with 
deer and wolves, and with Indians. Bees thronged in 
multitudes of swarms, and their honey was very 
abundant. I commenced with my neighbor Mr Thomas 
to hunt bees, and we were very successful. 

One day as we were going through a -tamarack swamp 
I noticed that something had been gnawing the trunk of 
a large tree. On close examination I found the marks 
of a bear. It had pulled out from the hollow tree a dry 
knot, and, looking through the knot-hole, I knew that the 
bear had found some honey. In the morning we cut the 
tree down, and took out one hundred and sixty pounds 
of excellent honey. 

Another day we had been a couple of miles from home 
to get potatoes. It was very dark when we returned to 
our homes. When there was but a hundred rods to go 
before we should reach our rude but comfortable dwell- 
ings, I heard something traveling in the path in front of 
us. Mr. Thomas thought it was a deer. I thought it did 
not walk like one, but suspected the wolves were on the 
path. Remembering that a handspike was standing 
against a tree as we passed by this spot in the morning, I 
caught hold of it. Mr. Thomas, also getting something 



TMAPPINO IN JEFFERSON CO., WIS. 159 

for self-defense, declared that he was ready for them, 
that he would saddle one with a bag of potatoes. When 
we walked they did ; when we stopped they also stopped. 
A fallen tree lay across our path, and we were obliged to 
go around it. Soon after we had passed it I heard a wolf 
turn out of the path, then another, and another, and the 
fourth one. They then set up such a howling as I have 
seldom heard. It seemed as if the ground shook from 
the violence of these creatures. The dogs began to bark. 
We called them and tried to set them upon the wolves, 
but could not. On reaching my home I learned that the 
wolves had been close to the house, and had frightened 
the dogs so much that they could not possibly be con- 
trolled. 

I have known dogs to be so badly frightened by wolves 
as never to recover from it. One of my neighbors had a 
dog so badly frightened by a wolf that after it found that 
it could not get into the house, it started for the road, 
and ran six miles from home, yelping at every bound as 
it left the house. Soon after it had started, another dog 
hearing the noise came to the rescue. The wolf left the 
first dog, and put upon the second one. This dog suc- 
ceeded in reaching its home, though not without some 
wounds from the wolf. The other dog was found in a 
couple of weeks and carried home. Towards night it 
began to grow uneasy, and acted as if it was afraid of 
something. This fear increased with the advancing dark- 
ness of the night, as it came on, and soon after sunset, when a 
limb fell from a tree close by the house, the dog began to 
howl, ran out of the house, and they were unable to catch 
it. They could never keep the dog at home afterwards. 

As soon as the weather became so cold that we could 
not hunt bees, we commenced to hunt deer, and we were 
again successful in our hunts. The deer used to go into 



160 WESTERN WILT) ANIMALS. 

the oak openings at night to get acorns to eat. In the 
morning they would go onto the swamps and stay during 
the day. We used to go out very early in the morning, 
and watch upon their runways. One time I killed four 
before sunrise. Another morning when we were watching, 
and were about forty rods from each other, just at day- 
break I heard a gun. I watched closely to learn, if pos- 
sible, the cause of it. I thought I could hear something, 
and went over the knoll that lay between us. The snow 
had fallen about nine inches the night before ; but it was 
beaten down for several rods around him. He v/as sitting 
on a log and breathing hard, as though he was recovering 
from a fight with some animal. A deer had come from 
behind an upturned root, and he did not see it until it 
was close by him. He had shot the animal on the back 
of the neck ; it had fallen, but seeing that it was getting 
up, Mr. Thomas caught it by the horns : it jumped, and 
dragged him off about eight feet. Just as he thought he 
was getting some advantage of it, the deer made another 
lunge upon him, and he fell as before. The deer probably 
meant no harm, but was trying to save its life. Mr. 
Thomas was also trying to save his life, by preventing the 
deer the free use of itself. He had, therefore, held onto 
the horns as long as possible. After a time he succeeded 
in getting the upper hand of it, and when I reached the 
spot the deer was nearly dead, and Mr. Thomas was 
exhausted. We used to leave our homes at five in the 
morning, and return about ten, of the same morning. 
We caught that winter upwards of seventy-five deer, eight 
or nine wolves, several wild cats, and a great many coons. 
We had a deer hanging up in the woods: a wild cat 
came to eat it. We therefore set a trap for the cat. One 
morning when we went out we were obliged to carry a 
lantern, and, as we were to pass the trap on our way, we 



TRAPPING IN JEFFERSON CO,, WIS. 161 

thought we would see if there was an3'thing in it. I saw 
that something had been there. There was a large pile 
of brush close bj^ and on looking into it to see what I 
could find, a huge wild cat jumped out at me so quick 
that I jumped too. On jumping back, I hit my heel 
against a bush, and I fell on my back. My next motion, 
which was to regain my footing, was about as quick a one. 
The cat had carried the trap off from where we had set it, 
and, as it sprang for me, the chain became entangled in 
the brushwood, and the cat could not quite reach me. 
I lit my lantern, which had, meantime, gone out, and shot 
the cat, doing it with a vengeance, to pay it for scaring 
me so outrageously. 

I'he next year we hunted a considerable, and selling 
my honey and my deer skins in New York State, I could 
replace the money that I had lost, for which I was to pay 
for my place. In the fall of the year following my hunt- 
ing with Mr. Thomas, partially sketched for you, we went 
together again. We had taken a boat, and were going 
down on Bark river and the Scoopernong. I saw some- 
thing crawling in the grass, and shot it. It proved to be 
an otter. I had never yet seen one, and had to be told 
what it v/as. The day following we caught three of them, 
and in two weeks we had caught sixteen. We also 
caught a good many muskrats, coons and mink. 

Later in the season I shot a deer and broke its leg. It 
fell down, but as I snapped my gun it jumped up and 
started to run 1 set my dog upon it, but it whipped the 
dog, and I ran to them, caught hold of the deer, and it 
threw me over a large tree that was lying on the ground 
near us. I arose in so great surprise that my dog caught 
some of my fire, and pitched into the deer again. We 
two excited ones killed it in a short time. On my return 
home I saw a fallen tree : it had fallen while the leaves 



162 WESTERN WILD ANIMALS. 

were on, and as it lay across my path I could just see the 
tip of the deer's ear. I whistled, to get it to lift its head, 
and it did, but not high enough. I tried it again, but the 
deer did not move. I shot at it, and away went five or 
six deer. I went on towards home, but being anxious to 
know if I had struck the deer, I returned, and found 
that I had split its head open, and it Vv'as of course dead. 

Late in February, while hunting, I came upon a bear's 
track, and after following it for a short distance I reached 
a spot of ground from which the snow had disappeared. 
I looked about every log, to see if I could find some track 
leading off from it. I could find no other tracks, so I 
knew the bear must be near me, hidden in some log or 
hollov,' tree. I found his tracks upon a tree, and a large 
hole upon one side of it. On the opposite side there 
was a crack in the tree nearly an inch wide. Through 
this crack I could see the bear's hair. How to kill it was 
the question. I must shoot it while it was in the tree ; 
but when I would go away from the tree to take my aim, 
I could not see the hair. I returned to the tree and 
marking the spot the best I could without disturbing his 
majesty, J stepped ofi' to shoot. I became quite excited, 
but succeeded in hitting my target. The excitement 
within was just then very great, as the grov/ling and 
pounding fully attested. I loaded my gun as quick as 
possible, and went around to the opposite side of the tree 
to shoot, if the bear should attempt to come out of the 
hole. He did not, and in a short time I cut the tree 
down and found my bear dead. 

One winter when a couple of men were stopping for a 
time near my home, to hunt, and having been two weeks 
without catching any game, they wanted to buy some of 
me. I was at the time hunting on a contract, and could 
not sell them any ; but I told them that I would kill a 



TRAPPING IN JEFFERSON CO., WIS. 163 

deer for them the next day, for two dollars and a half. 
But they wanted two and I promised them the two. I 
purposed to go out alone ; the men, however, were very 
anxious to go out with me, and having promised to be 
good boys and not disturb me nor frighten the game, I 
consented to let them go. One of the men soon lost us, 
and we saw no more of him through the day. After a 
long time when I saw a deer, and was about to fire at it, 
the man who had kept with me, got a little too close to 
me ; he caught my arm and told me not to shoot at that 
distance. Before I could again take aim at the deer, it 
was far beyond shooting distance. It crossed a swamp, 
w^ent over a ridge, and upon a flat beyond it. I told the 
man who was with me to stand quietly behind a certain 
tree until I called him. The woods in which we were, 
were what Western people know as "openings." I crawled 
upon the ground as stealthily as I could, and for some 
time after I had reached the top of the ridge, or bluff, I 
kept in range of a tree that hid me from the deer. There 
were several standing close together, watching a man 
beyond them, who was driving his cattle to water. I 
shot, and killed the leading deer. The others, though 
frightened, very soon came to look at the fallen deer, and 
when I was about ready to fire at another one, I looked 
up and saw them running away from me. I looked to 
see what was the occasion of the fright and saw my hunts- 
man running towards them. I called to know what that 
meant, and learned to my delight, satisfaction, or what 
you please to call it, that he was anxious to know if I had 
seen that deer fall. I knew I had not seen but one fall, 
and yet I had expected to catch several of them. 

If you want to know how I felt for a moment, I think 
that Gough's story about the good baby would explain 
as well as I could tell. When a mother was speaking in 



16i WESTERN WILD ANIMALS. 

very high praise of her baby, because it never cried, nor 
made any trouble, some one asked her if she thought it 
was a bright child. I told the man he was too big a fool 
to be in the woods, that I should go home and leave him 
to get his second deer. 

Independently of such poor company as I had with me 
on the day just referred to, I have made some very poor 
days at hunting ; but they have not all been unsuccessful. 
On one hunt I caught thirteen deer in three days. I 
have quite a number of times caught live in a single day. 
Once I got six in one day, and that day at my first shot 
I killed two large bucks, and at my fourth shot I killed 
two fawns. Of the last fifteen tracks which I saw in that 
locality I killed fourteen deer. My farm work kept me 
busy during the most of the year. For five or six weeks 
during the fall and winter I used to hunt, and I would 
make two hundred or two hundred and fifty dollars in 
that time. In 1855, when I did some of my last hunting 
in Jefferson county, the deer were very scarce. There 
have, probably, not been a half dozen killed there since 
that time. 



A TRAMP TO CALIFORNIA. 165 



VI. 
A TRAMP TO CALIFORNIA IN 1852. 



The desires of my boyhood were to be more than real- 
ized. My dreams of life in a wild country were to be no 
longer dreams. In the early spring of 1852, in company 
with two others, I started from my home in Southern 
Wisconsin, to conduct a company of men across the 
plains to California. 

For any number of persons • to undertake an overland 
journey to California a score of years ago was to set at 
naught the pleadings of anxious friends, who were to be 
left behind, to face a long and exceedingly tedious jour- 
ney, and one fraught in many cases with imminent peril. 
It was to travel, even in well equipped and thoroughly 
furnished companies, at such disadvantageous rates as 
would mock the fruitful imagination of even appreciative 
travelers, while crossing many of those same rivers, plains, 
mountains or mountain passes, but who view them at a 
rapid rate from the 'windows of some Pulman palace car, 
upon the Union Pacific Railroad. While now, children 
may be put in the care of some watchful conductor, or 
partial stranger, and be safely conveyed in the lapse of a 
few days to their places of destination upon the extreme 
western coast; while timid travelers and infirm people 
have but to be seated and wrap about them, as with a 
garment, a spirit of fearless quiet, and bidding good-night 
to an Atlantic home can so soon say good-morning to the 
Golden Gate : twenty years ago no man ever dreamed of 



166 WESTERN WILD ANIMALS. 

going alone from shore to shore, and companies of 
stoat -hearted, fearless men, many of whom were in those 
days, figuratively speaking, crazy to reach that land flow- 
ing with gold and money, not unfrequently lost members 
from their ranks, who were literally crazed by the ex- 
posures and anxieties of the journey. Then, as now, not 
all the men of any company that would be organized 
could make good pilots through a trackless or an unknown 
land ; and then, as now, what is everybody's business is 
nobody's business, and this saying applied to the case in 
hand, to be understood, that every man for a pilot would 
soon leave no man for a pilot, it was safer and pleasanter 
for a company to be subject to the leadership of an 
authorized guide. 

Gold, gold, gold, was the excited cry all over the land. 
It was the great Emancipation Proclamation of the day, 
and California was the Canada of the slave to poverty. 
It was this cry of gold that impelled the majority of the 
men composing the comi)any of which I was one of the 
guides to leave their homes, and brave the dangers of 
such a journey at such a time. There were thirty- three 
men in that company, twenty-one of whom were residents 
of Sulivan. These, understanding that it was in every 
respect the better policy to secure one or more guides, 
had engaged Mr. Miles Homes, Mr. John Nutter, and 
myself to conduct them to that promising land. We 
were each to receive two hundred dollars for taking the 
men across to California. " 

These thirty-three men were all of them at the time 
residents of Southern Wisconsin. The State was then in 
its infancy, and no home in it was other than a pioneer's 
home. To men living in such homes as these did, where 
every man's neighbor lived on a footing with himself, and 
where, though the necessities of life might be quite well 



A TRAMP TO CALIFORNIA. 167 

supplied, the luxuries and even the comforts of older 
homes had scarcely been talked of as a possible addition 
to what they already possessed ; to these men, an over- 
land journey to the western coast possessed none of those 
attractive features so inviting to the west-bound traveler 
of to-day. They were men used to toil and to privations, 
but who were bent on getting that curative of so many of 
the ills of life, that ever precious gold. The difficulties 
of the way between them and their promised treasures 
they were bound to meet with manly courage. What 
they did, and how they fared, it falls to me after the lapse 
of more than a score of years to tell you. 

Having once decided to go, and the necessary arrange- 
ments having been freely discussed and in due time 
carried to completion, the company was, according to 
arrangement, to meet at the house of your narrator. The 
eleventh of March was the inauguration day of the great 
event. I say the great event, and I think I am justified 
in calling it such, to some of us, at least, and as there's 
no one of the company here to contradict me, I shall not 
recall the statement. 

While I know that my neighbors are coming, but before 
they reach my door, I try to settle beyond a doubt, if I 
am ready to leave my fam'ly, in which there were several 
young boys, upon a frontier home, to care for themselves 
as best they can, and if I can believe that all will be well 
with them, should I never return. It was to be a jour- 
ney of several months, at the best, of exposure and 
fatigue. As incivility is nowhere the type of a true 
gentleman ; but as, on the contrary, a hearty welcome is 
the one best thing that can be offered a guest, let me 
put you in a position to feel something of that welcome, 
which I felt, as I opened the door, for some of the men 
with whom I went to come in. 



168 WESTERN WILD ANIMALS. 

Mr. Holmes, who was my partner in the undertaking, 
was born in Waterbury, Massachusetts, of excellent 
parentage. His family connections are well identified 
with important manufacturing interests of the State, and 
many of them are exceedingly wealthy. He was a man 
of strong executive ability and business-like habits. He 
had been for a number of years a merchant in Georgia, 
prior to his removal to Wisconsin, where I first became 
acquainted with him. He was appointed Colonel of State 
militia of Wisconsin, by Governor Dodge. You would 
like him, and were you to enter into any business relations 
with him, you might rest assured he would not fail you, 
nor would he in any way do violence to his promises ; he 
would also, doubtless, be on the ground before you were, 
at the time appointed for any convocation, or for work 
in any shape. One must be up and dressed to get in 
ahead of such a man. He was stout and brave, and yet 
sympathetic and easily moved to tears. Apparently fear- 
less of danger, and regardless of suffering, he was in truth 
as much excited in sympathy for the sufferings of those 
around him, as he was scornful of any coward's cry of 
lions in the way. 

Mr. Nutter, who was the third partner, and who was 
elected to the captaincy of the company, may be known 
by his fine athletic frame and robust form, his healthy 
countenance and complexion, darkened somewhat by 
exposure to the sun, hands, and muscles generally, hard- 
ened by actual contact with the toils of life, and his dark, 
piercing eyes, which if they were darkened by other cause 
than nature's choice, must have been by the charred 
remains of the many fires that have burned there. He 
is one of your lucky fellows, and he makes those lucky, 
too, with whom he is associated. We shall need him 
many times before we reach our journey's end ; and as 



A TRAMP TO CALIFORNIA. 169 

well might one expect a Yankee question-maker to be 
outwitted by a California story-teller, as for a party like 
ours to expect to get through such a journey in safety 
without taking into their number this ingenious fellow, 
or some of his pedigree ; though they may not be related 
to him by the ties of consanguinity, if they are by mental 
aptitudes, the end is accomplished ; for the never failing 
luck of coming right side up with care, will serve them 
many a good turn, and disarming men of doubts and dis- 
couragements, will put in their stead confidence and good 
humor. If there's a river to be crossed, and no one can 
find afordable spot ; if there's extra baggage to be packed, 
and no one can find a place to stow it away ; if there's a 
bad place in the road, and no one knows how to get 
around or over it ; if it is so hot or so cold, so wet or so 
dry, that no one can tell how to adapt himself to the 
circumstances and keep on the march. Nutter is in his 
element, and no sooner is the difficulty apparent than his 
head and his hands are hard at work to make a way of 
escape. If a trail is lost and the heavens withholding 
help, keep back behind their clouds the twinkling stars, 
his head is clear, and in the twinkling of his eye you 
may find your assurance that all will yet be well. If you 
still doubt it, he has but just returned from such a trip, 
and knows whereof he speaks. Besides all this, he is a 
jolly fellow and will be excellent company upon the 
road. 

Charles Hibbard, a man of excellent principles and 
upright morality, is a quiet, thorough-bred gentleman. 
Though by no means a conversationalist, as the world 
calls such, he must yet be in possession of one of the key 
secrets of good conversation ; he always stops talking 
before berating his neighbors. He shows himself friendly 
to every one, and all are friends to him. For his cheer- 



170 WESTERN WILD ANIMALS. 

fill, happy spirit, and consequent wholesome influence 
upon us, he was welcome to our number. 

Charles Dunning was born of fighting stock. I think 
he was. Physiologists tell us of the varied forms and 
functions of the corpuscles of the blood; that some are 
red and some are white ; that the former exceed the 
latter in numbers ; that the latter are the larger, and that 
the red ones are doubtless the product of the white ones. 
Now it is certain that the blood which coursed his veins 
was fired by elements somewhat antagonistic. The milk 
of human kindness was there, the white corpuscles of his 
nature, a pugilistic spirit, calling for bloody revenge, if 
need be, the red corpuscles. The former, when observed 
displayed the generous, warm-hearted man; the latter, 
though more frequently manifested, may have been, after 
all, th'e outgrowth of the former, produced by a desire to 
see every man receive his just rewards, to see humanity 
rewarded and malice punished. 

Stephen Davenport, who took with him a son, resided 
in Jefferson Co., Wisconsin. He had a strong inclination 
to corpulency ; whether that inclination was wholly men- 
tal, or wholly physical, or a mixture of the two, his 
personal appearance and further acquaintance with him 
might furnish you a good chance to learn. Some one, 
speaking from 1874, asks if he belongs to the Fat Men's 
Association. We cannot tell you ; but his credentials at 
the time to which I refer you for an introduction, would 
have been accepted by said Association as readily as you 
should now accept his company ; for he was both fat and 
jolly, his two hundred avoirdupois being well balanced by 
his love of fun. His love of a horse exceeded almost any 
other display of his affections. Nothing seemed to suit 
him better than to get a good horse, and to care for it 
well. He was easily excited, and was then very strong. 



A TBAMP TO CALIFORNIA. 171 

I have known him, when under excitement, to carry 
weights that in a state of relaxation he could not, with 
the help of two able-bodied men, lift from the ground. 

Of the Jaquith brothers there were three. They would go 
everywhere, and you would think all at once, up hill and 
down, upon high peaks or rocks, through ravines and 
across streams, to see what could be seen, and to hear 
what could be heard. They will make good picket men: 
their quick ears will catch the first sound of coming dan- 
ger; their judgment, quick to act, will soon decide the 
case in hand. As for ability to mimic all the strange 
noises, earthly and unearthly sounds, there's none can 
beat them. Coyotes, Prairie-dogs, Buffaloes, birds upon 
the wing or in the woods, and Lo, the poor Indian, stand 
their chances alike of keepmg in advance of their imita- 
tive powers. They are the fun-makers for the crowd. 
Should they, prompted by their native inquisitiveness, go 
too far beyond the camping ground, some one must look 
them up; else after some wearisome march, when a jolly chat 
over the evening meal, and about the cheerful fire, would 
make the men forget the fatigues of the day, and fit them 
for a healthful sleep, they must wrap the mantle of their 
gloomy moods about them, and lay them down to sleepless 
dreams. 

Henry Torry, who was an active, nervous, plucky little 
fellow, was the oddest genius in the company His 
drollery, of which he was sometimes conscious and some- 
times not, was not to be matched by any of us. He is 
one of the many who have been, by some fall, knocked 
*' sensible " in less than a minute. He says he fell from 
a trespass, 'twas no precipice, I assure you, and that he 
remained sensible for some timt after his fall. He is an 
excellent man, and his excellence is in keeping with his 
zeal for the promo cion of good. 



172 WESTERN WTLT) ANIMALS. 

If any of the company should think that I have forgotten 
that Abram Balsar was one of us, he is as much mistaken 
as if I were to say that our food never becomes a part of 
us physically, and that the condition of the stomach has 
no influence upon the conduct of the head. Ralsar was 
by profession a baker. At the time of which I write, he 
was practically both cook and baker. He was also a 
good fiddler. You may call him a sort of homoeopathist. 
He was, in his way. He was an expert in dealing out 
palatable dishes, sweet to the mouth as are sugar-coated 
pills ; and when, after the march of the day, he had, by 
virtue of his office and by his willing hand, helped to place 
upon our rustic board what satisfied our cravings of 
hunger; and when there was still a hunger not touched 
by bread or meat, he could fill our ears with what made 
music in the heart, and satisfied its cravings for something 
restful and cheering. 

If you, my readers, have also read the preface to this 
book, you have learned that David is not doing all this 
writing for himself. Therefore, seizing my chance to take 
a little advantage of him, I purpose here to intrust to 
your supposed safe keeping a secre^. It concerns David. 
I think his motives in going, though I've never heard him 
say it, were his love for the woodsman's life, his chance 
while thus living to still work for his family, and his share 
in the chances of the good time coming, when they should 
reach the Golden State. I think, from what I know of 
him, that his friends wanted him to go ; because his head 
was a capital compass ; because he was not afraid of wolf 
or bear, or Indian, crows or scarecrows ; because there 
was no other so good a hunter and trapper whose services 
they could procure, and through him procure the needed 
game. Should he ever learn of this, and charge the tell- 
ing to me, I shall simply tell him that he owed it to 



A TRAMP TO CALIFORNIA. 173 

himself, to tell you for himself why he was released from 
picket and other duties, and that-, should he revise this 
book, he must tell you, in his own queer way, of his ad- 
ventures in '52, and not be moved by that modesty that 
now cheats him out of saying a word in his own behalf. 
Just one other thing let me tell you, and we are ready for 
the forward march. When our hunter tells you his own 
story, he will doubtless call himself " David and I," as 
that's an old trick of his. Ma,ny ot his neighbors will 
vouch for the truth of this, that when he leaves them he 
will say, " David and 1 must go." 

As the servants of the company, there were four ox 
teams and one horse team. We had twelve yoke of oxen, 
three yoke were hitched to a wagon, and we had five 
horses. Four of the horses were driven, and one was 
used for a saddle horse. Our wagons were well loaded, 
and thus equipped, our merry, sober men left my house, 
leaving behind us a company of about two hundred, who 
were possibly less merry and more sober than we were. 
The next day two companies met us, one from Cold 
Springs, and the other from La,ke Mills, adding to our 
number twelve men and nine yoke of oxen, and one horse. 

The roads were in very poor condition, and the water 
was high ; but we went on, and across Illinois, following 
the eastern bank of Rock river, then on the east side of 
the Mississippi until we reached a point opposite Fort 
Madison. We would put up at night at some private 
house, or at some tavern, and at noon would feed our 
teams upon the road, and feed ourselves as circumstances 
made it most convenient. 

Just before we crossed the Mississippi, an Irishman 
came into our camp, while we were eating our dinner, 
and without saying a word to any of us, took a plate and 
some victuals and seated himself to eat his dinner with 



174 WESTERN WILD ANIMALS. 

us. After he had satisfied himself and was about to leave 
us, Dunning demanded pay for his dinner. But, says 
the Irishman, " Fath and be jabers, ain't I in a free coun- 
try, and hain't I got a right to eat when I plase?" "Yes, 
and ye're in a very free country, and ye're free to pay for 
what ye get, too !" But poor Paddy, swearing by all that's 
good and great, declared that he couldn't do that, for 
he hadn't got any money; whereupon Dunning, either 
having no faith in his word, or feeling abused and deter- 
mined to get satisfaction by giving Paddy no chance to 
digest his dinner, grabbed him by the collar, carried him 
to the river, and threatened to throw him in at once if he 
didn't fork over. Paddy, though he didn't really know 
that a man ever had red corpuscles in his disposition, yet 
appreciated the force of his determination, and handed 
over a five dollar gold piece. 

Near the close of the day, having made arrangements 
with the ferry-man to take us across the river that night, 
we set ourselves to work to get the baggage in readiness. 
The boat was small and the ferry-man was obliged to 
make several trips before he could get us all over. 

When some of the teams had been taken, and the boat 
was about to be reloaded, in defiance of the rule that no 
man or party could be ferried across until the previous 
engagements Avere fulfilled, an old Dutchman and his 
wife were about to drive in ahead of our men and teams, 
upon the boat. Some of the boys caught the horses and 
others caught the wagon wheels; as the Dutchman's wrath 
made it too hot for him in his wagon, he got out to give 
his wrath a good ventilation, and those impudent, ill- 
mannered boys a good flogging. He first clinched 
Nutter; but they, seeing that the struggle was unequal, 
lent a helping hand, doubtless with the intent to persuade 
him, by a practical experiment, that they rejoiced in the 



A TRAMP TO CALIFOJINIA. 175 

opportunity to rid him of such a nuisance as our Captain 
seemed to be to him, because he would not let the aged 
couple cross just when they pleased. 

His wife, however, who had been left the only occupant 
of the wagon, looked at the matter from a different stand- 
point, and didn't read their intentions as I have stated 
them to be. She had a view of her own. I'm inclined, 
to think she never goes anywhere without one. 

If she was one of your four-handed people, as wealthy 
people are sometimes said to be, I cannot say, but this I 
know, she had a very hard fist, harder and more to be 
dreaded than her husband's was. Conscious of her 
strength, and possibly of her indignation, she jumped 
from the wagon, doubled her fist, and with it struck 
Nutter with such vehemence as I've seldom seen dis- 
played bet\veen man and man.- She was a striking 
character, I can assure you, not strikingly' handsome, 
as many women seem to wish to be, nor strikingly 
"tame," as some of whom we've recently heard, but 
striking in many of her v/ays. 

Nutter, who was now in the position of the light brig- 
ade, with 

" Cannon to right of them, 
Cannon to left of them, 
Cannon in front of them," 

for the Dutchman and his wife were all around him in no 
time, 

" Volleyed and thundered." 

"(vood heavens! woman, I won't strike you; but I will 
whip your husband." Our boys, coming again to the 
rescue, proved themselves the victors, and the venerable 
couple decided to do, as all good old people will do, 
patiently bide their time to cross the river of — Missis- 
sippi. Nutter did not soon hear the last of his unequal 
tussle with the Dutchman, 



176 WEl^TERN WILD ANIMALS. 

Mr. Holmes and Mr. Cole left us to go down to St. 
Louis, to purchase supplies for the remainder of the 
journey. 

We went on to Des Moines, and thence across Missouri 
to St. Joseph. In our slow march through the State, we 
saw nothing, neither did we hear anything, nor did we 
meet, nor were we met by anything beyond the ordinary 
knowledge of thousands of pioneers. We were in their 
country, and yet in a new and sparsely settled one. We 
were outside of fences, but not beyond the pales of the 
white man's habitations, nor westward of his pale face. 
Houses were rude, but there were comfortable ones : 
there were some roads and such as we would be ashamed 
to underrate, knowing as we do, of the hard work that is 
required to make good ones in a new country. The soil, 
of which clay is an important constituent, was wet and 
sticky. The streams were high and there were no 
bridges. Several of these we bridged ourselves, but as 
we did it on foot, or on horseback, the bridges did no 
one any good, except ourselves. There had been as yet 
no pursuing Egyptians, nor red-man's host to follow upon 
our trail across these streams, in the vain hope of catch- 
ing us on the other side, or to be engulfed in a fordable 
river. One we could not ford; but upon examination 
we found our spirits were higher than its waters ; and by 
dint of perseverance and a little management, we suc- 
ceeded in crossing and in reaching the other shore high 
and dry. We felled trees and run our wagons over on 
them, and we swam our cattle and horses across. This 
State, as many more inhabitants of it can testify, is in 
many respects physically beautiful. 

Soon after reaching St. Joseph, I received a letter from 
Mr. Holmes, telling what day he expected to start from 
St. Louis, and that he would be on board the Seeloday. 



A TRAMP TO CALIFORNIA. 177 

Our next news from St. Louis was that the boat, while 
on its way up the river, had been blown up, that four 
hundred lives had been lost, and that all of the freight was 
lost. A chill of horror ran through our hearts, as it did 
throughout the land. Many households were to bow in 
sorrow, if not submission, at the loss of some loved one. 
Four hundred lives lost ! and that our friend Holmes had 
escaped was scarcely to be thought of. All of the freight 
lost ! and we knew that our food stuffs were gone. The 
loss of Mr. Holmes would be a doubly great loss to me; 
for we, as partners in the undertaking, had been bound 
under a forfeiture of two-hundred dollars each, to the 
nineteen men who started from my house with us, should 
we fail to take them through to California according to 
contract. There was not money enough in the camp 
with which to buy our necessary outfit, in case the worst pos- 
sible news should prove to be the truth. A merchant in St. 
Joseph, knowing our extremity, told Nutter and myself 
that he would furnish us with what we wanted, that we 
might pay him what we could, and send him the balance 
of the indebtedness after reaching California. This he 
would do in case our men v/ere dead, or our provisions 
were lost. That day a boat came in from down the river, 
but brought no word from Mr. Holmes, nor of him. I 
determined to go down the following day, to learn some- 
thing about them ; should it be good news or bad, we 
could wait no longer in suspense. A boat came up just 
before mine was to go down, and when it landed I saw 
our men upon her deck. 'Twas a joyful moment to me, 
and though it was a joyful thought to Mr. Holmes that 
he had reached his men in safety, his eyes were as if 
still riveted upon some awful scene. He took my hand 
with a warm grasp, but he was speechless. Large tears 
coursed unchecked over his manly face. I wil) not, with 



178 WESTERN WILD ANIMALS. 

the sneer of some of you, call them womanish tears ; for 
'twas manly to weep with those v/ho wept, to weep for 
those bereaved. 

It was some little time before he could control his emo- 
tions, and could give us any details of the disaster. When 
he did, it was with no parade of sensational narrative 
that he recounted to us the events of the terrible catas- 
trophe, but from an overburdened heart, still strangely 
horrified, that he said to us : I saw, as I approached our 
boat, that it was very heavily loaded. I feared that it 
would give us trouble ; but as I was to be only a passen- 
ger, and not wishing to make myself offensively con- 
spicuous, I kept my fears in check. After we had started^ 
and were in a bend in the river, at which point the stream 
was very rapid, and the boat could not, for its freight, 
work its way over the waves, and after it had made two 
attempts and failed, I said to the captain " Throw out a 
line and let a hundred of us get out and pull on the rope, 
and help you over this." " No ! I won't ! I'll run it 
over myself, or blow her to h — 1. " " Have you ever 
blowed one up ?" I asked. " Yes, I have, and I done the 
old thing good justice, too." I went around to the en- 
gine room, and saw that the safety valve was tied down. 
I said to Cole, " That boiler will burst, and we're a ship- 
wTecked set. Let's go to the stern." We had scarcely 
reached it when the deck was raised, everything rose up, 
the boat was instantly shattered to pieces, and scattered 
upon the waste of waters. How we escaped I cannot 
tell. Hundreds of bodies of dead and dying were 
mingled in that sea of blood, for the blood of mangled 
bodies was flowing fast and free. The living were mak- 
ing loud moans, calling in their anguish for help ; some 
calling for their friends, children for their parents, and the 
parent for her child. A mangled part of the captain's 



A TRAMP TO CALIFORNIA. 179 

body was found upon a shed about four hundred feet 
from the water. He had lost everything, and there was 
nothing but the few shreds of clothing left upon his body, 
and his upturned face, by which one could identify the 
perpetrator of that wicked deed. 

Holmes was determined to be a man and being no 
longer able to help any of the wreckers, he turned his 
attention to his own business. He had had the goods 
insured in St. Louis, and proposed that we sell the 
insurance to the merchant of whom we must get our sup- 
plies. This we did, and on the seventeenth of April we 
started out from St. Joseph. Our first six miles west 
from the river, which we crossed on a ferry, was through 
a lightly timbered section. We then struck a prairie, 
upon which we found a little belt of timber along its 
streams. The soil or mould, was black, loose, and 
fertile. 

Taking a north-western course from St. Joseph, after 
crossing several small streams, and for some time follow- 
ing the Little Blue, we came to one of its tributaries 
which was too deep for fording. The water was at that 
time unusually high; we must, therefore, cross it in some 
other way than by wading. We had prepared ourselves 
for such emergencies. We had made blocks to put on 
the bolsters of the wagons and under the boxes, to raise 
them nearly to the tops of the stakes. Having put these 
blocks upon the several wagons, we tied the wagon boxes 
down so that they could not be washed off by the current. 
By this means we crossed two streams before reaching 
Fort Kearney. 

By this time several small companies, going our way, 
had joined with ours, making our number about sixty- 
five. W^e did not hold ourselves responsible for their safe 
passage through the western wilds ; but we traveled to- 



180 WESTERN WILD ANIMALS. 

gether, and were all by agreement subject to certain rules. 
We were fast approaching a country where it behooved us 
to 

' Be up and watching, 
V/ith a heart for any fate,' 

We therefore put out a guard every night to watch the 
camp. This guard was appointed by a daily draft, or 
better this, that every man took his turn, which was 
determined by response to roll call, and he was obliged 
to serve or furnish a substitute. There were generally 
two on picket together, and in cases of evident necessity, 
more vv-ere appointed, as circumstances dictated. We 
traveled at the rate of eighteen miles a day through this 
section of the country, and were now where we did not 
see a woodsman's clearing, or a prairie home. We were 
^' Out West," that uncivilized, indefinite, out of the world 
sort of place, which so many people never expected to 
see who now live there, in many cases even in opulence, 
and who still say " Going out West," as though there were 
no "aguish vv-est count.ee" east of them. We were 
beyond the clamor of Presidential campaigns, and com- 
ing elections, and cared nothing practically for all their 
filibustering, if the people would only make sure of hav- 
ing the District of Columbia well stocked with good 
official stuff. So long as the American Eagle, and the 
Star Spangled Banner ' should wave over our heads, and 
the red man should not pick the pockets of this man of 
his tobacco, nor of that one of his last " mon," and the 
coyotes should not pick the bones of any of us, we 
counted ourselves happy, and richer by far than any 
rascal in the land who should go to the polls to deposit, 
with a telling effect, a pocket full of votes. 

The antelope began to show themselves and I began to 
show signs of increased happiness. Sometimes 1 would 



A TRAMP TO CALIFORNIA. 181 

see them on the road ahead of us, or not far from the 
side of the road as we passed along. Of course I used 
to take my rifle and go out after them. No sooner would 
I start than three or four, or a half dozen of the men, 
taking their guns too, would follow me. Knowing the 
excessive timidity of this most beautiful creature, I soon 
resolved to go quietly back to the teams, when any of the 
men should follow me. So many hunters would always 
scare away the game. It was, therefore, arranged that I 
should do the hunting for the party, and as a compen- 
sation should be released from picket duty. 

When about sixteen miles east of Ft. Kearney we 
pitched our next cam.p. We ate our breakfast very early 
in the morning, and as we were finishing our meal an 
Indian came up from the brush that grew close by the 
river bank, came into our camp and wanted to know which 
was our chief. We pointed him to Captain Nutter. Step- 
ping up to him he asked, " You chief?" " Yes." Strik- 
ing his hand upon his breast, the Indian s^d, " Me chief, 
too; good Indian." By this time another had come in, 
presently a third, and in a few minutes a '^ big heap Indi- 
ans" had come into our camp, all of them mounted upon 
ponies or mules, and all armed with guns. There might 
have been three hundred of them. The Captain was 
frightened. If any of you were witnesses of the childish, 
yet actual fright of the little school girl, who, in her bliss- 
ful ignorance of the fact that there were any colored 
people, was so terrified at the entrance of a colored boy 
into her school that she could neither study nor recite ; 
that after the children had learned what was the matter 
with her, and had set him up to all sorts of mischievous 
pranks, and she used to hide in every hidable place ; that 
when she stood near him one day in the spelling class, 
and he conscious of her fear of him had fixed his white- 



1S3 WBHTEUN WILD ANIMALS. 

black eyes upon her, and she was so overcome by it that 
the teacher, supposing her to be sick, sent her home to be 
cared for ; if you saw her a few months afterwards, when 
in a new home she was one day visiting a family in whose 
house there was a colored servant, and when that servant, 
suddenly making her appearance from the basement, ^ 
entered the living room, she could not al; first, for her 
fright, utter a sound ; but, her whole frame in agitation, 
she started and in an amusing attitude stood pointing her 
finger towards the black visage ; and when this new mode 
of treatment so amused Aunt Dinah that she opened her 
great white eye-balls and stretched her mouth to the 
fullest extent of its great capabilities and thus brought 
the child's struggling words to a squeaking utterance, she 
cried, " There, see ! see there ! there !" if, I say, any of 
you knew of this girl's Iright, you are easily prepared to 
appreciate the Captain's condition on this memorable 
morning. We did not tell you at the first all that we 
knew about our friend Nuttei. He was sometimes badly 
frightened. Rushing to the cooks he said " Stop, don't ; 
don't stop to wash the dishes. We are in a bad spot ; we 
shall all be killed." Holmes and I, just before the Indians 
had come up, had for the safety of the guns shot them off. 
Says Nutter : " Put up those guns; they will think we are 
afraid of them." " They will know we are ready for 
them," I said. One of them came up to Holmes, or the 
Colonel as we often caliect him, and wanted him to give 
him some tobacco. Holmes took out a large piece from 
his pocket, and cutting oft"" a small piece gave it to the 
Indian. That made him angry, and in an instant he 
sprang to grasp a sheathed knife from Holmes which 
was attached to a belt and hung at his side.. The 
Colonel was a large, powerful iran, but quick and ner- 
vous, a man who was afraid of nothing; there was 



A TRAMP TO CALIFORNIA. 183 

not one cowardly trait in his disposition. I've sometimes 
wondered if the Devil himself could frighten him much. 
With his powerful fist he struck the Indian, and set him 
standing on his back. These Indians belonged to the 
Pawnee tribe. They were the largest, most muscular and 
most powerful Indians I have ever seen, and in fact this 
is true of the tribe as compared with all other tribes. 
Some of our men were terribly frightened, and began to 
give them everything they wanted. One man from Vir- 
einia, who had with him his family, and who belonged to 
one of the companies that had recently joined ours, had 
two teams, and from one of the wagons he began to feed 
them with crackers. I said to him, " Don't you give them 
any more; you will starve to death." "What shall I 
do .''" he said. " Give them powder and balls ; i am good 
for two of them at the first shot " One of the Indians 
looked up at me and laughed. I have always thought he 
understood v/hat I said, and 1 read in his laugh that they 
were not after our blood, but our viccuals. It proved to 
be the correct translation of their purpose. Finding they 
could not get much they left us. We got up our teams 
and started on. 

There were two brothers from Missouri v/ho had joined 
us. I have forgotten their names, if in fact I ever knew 
them, for we always called them Missouri. They had 
been across the plains in 1850. They had with them two 
cows and two horses which they were going to take to 
California. One of these cows had a little calf. These 
men were so badly frightened by the Pawnees that they 
did not even look for their cow. The Indians stopped 
about two miles beyond our camp. We passed them on 
our way, and when we were about two miles beyond them 
I missed the cow. I spoke to one of the men about it 
and found that they already knew that it was left behind. 



184 WE8TEBN WILD ANIMALS. 

and that they were afraid to go back after it. I offered 
to go with one of them to get it. He was afraid to go 
unless one other man would accompany us. We returned 
to our camp, where we found the calf. Its throat had been 
cut and it was left to die. On our return to our ox train 
we found the cow in the hands of another party. When 
we reached Ft. Kearney we found our Pawnee friends 
there and found the officers rolling out to them barrels of 
flour and pork. They had told the government officers 
that they were about starved, that they had intended to 
rob our company ; but they found some very resolute men 
among them. The officers were driven to give them 
something. The Sioux Indians were then at war with the 
Pawnees. We went on a little beyond the Fort and 
camped for the night. 

The next day we went about as far as usual and camped 
by the river again. The river was at this place about a 
mile wide, but exceedingly shallow; it was at no place 
more than two feet deep, and was full of sand bars and 
islands. This sand is cold quick-sand. Vv^e hitched six 
yoke of oxen to our several wagons and crossed the river. 
We could at no place, while crossing, stop our teams lest 
they should sink in the sand. The day had passed its 
middle mark before we were all safely across the river. 
We were now on its northern bank. We stopped for the 
afternoon to rest ourselves and our cattle. 

After dinner some of us thought it a good way to rest, 
to go out hunting. The Colonel, one of the Missouri men 
and myself started, followed in a short time by fifteen or 
twenty others. Back from the river flats we could see 
buffalo. The country was very level for four or five miles 
from the river. Having crossed this level tract,^we came 
into an undulating region, a beautiful rolling prairie 
country. The bluffs were not high, but they were treeless 



A TRAMP TO CALIFORNIA. 185 

and almost shrubless, smooth, clean bluff upon bluff, over 
which the eye could reach in its clear vision mile after 
mile. The tops of these bluffs, as far as the eye could 
reach were covered with herds of buffalo. A grand, 
good sight for my eyes. Missouri said that he had killed 
a great many buffaloes, and that one must hit them farther 
back and lower upon the body than any other animah 
Agreeing to aim as he directed, I soon after fired and hit 
one of the animals ; but I knew by its motions that it had 
been hit too far back. I was sorry ; still I believed that 
I could, by carefully changing my position, kill it. That 
I might do it, Missouri agreed to keep perfectly quiet ; 
but at the critical moment he called to his brother, who 
was about eighty rods behind us. My buffalo, which 
wasn't mine, called to its brothers, and the whole herd 
went off. The Colonel and I were, as you may suppose, 
indignant that we had thus lost our game ; but by telling 
of him, I have now had my revenge. We sat down and 
beheld the grand retreat. The land as far as the eye 
could reach was blackened with the huge, wild creatures. 
There were doubtless thousands of them, and somewhere 
in their number the wounded one. 

We turned our course and soon saw a herd of twenty- 
five or thirty coming towards us. We trid to head them 
off, but we were too far away. We shot at them, but did 
not kill any. There had been so many men out amongst 
them that day, that they were excited and easily 
frightened. We started for camp. On our way we saw 
a buffalo coming, followed by a man on horseback, driv- 
ing at full speed. When we had come within a hundred 
rods of them, the buffalo, doubtless frightened by us, 
turned about. Its pursuer was now only a few rods dis- 
tant and he fired at it. He hit it ; but after running a 
little ways, the two being in close proximity, the buffalo 



186 WmiERN WILD ANIMAL,'^. 

started to fight the man. He fired at it again, and the 
creature fell and very soon died. The man had shot it 
in the heart. As we helped him turn it over I made up 
my mind that I had shot my buffalo too far back upon 
the body. I resolved, and I think it an advisable reso- 
lution for any one to make, that I would always shoot as 
close to the fore leg as possible, and about one-third of 
the way up the body. As there is a hump on the shoul- 
ders, unless one is careful he will shoot too high. We 
all reached camp in good season ; but I cannot say that 
we did in as good spirits, for none of us had brought into 
camp any game. I found at night that I had left my 
powder-horn, doubtless where I had made my first shot. 
We had planned to get an early start in the morning, 
and to make a big drive. We therefore started before 
sunrise. I quietly asked Hibbard to go with me to get 
my powder-horn, and suggested that while we were gone 
we might possibly get some game. We told no one 
except Holmes where we were going, lest the fright among 
the wild herds should be repeated, and we again defeated, 
and our men as bad off as villagers without a meat 
market. As the teams started we left the road and took 
our march towards the bluffs. I found my horn ; but 
there were no buffaloes in sight. We moved on west- 
ward, and after a little struck for some bluffs a mile or 
two from us. As we reached the top of a bluff we saw 
large herds of buffaloes, two or three miles away. Our 
courage was good and our determination to push our 
way on towards them. When we were within a half-mile 
of them, there seemed to be two ravines, one on each 
side of them. I said to Hibbard if he would approach 
them by the left hand ravine I would go up on the right 
side of them, and we might both get a shot at them. 
When I had reached a point in the ravine which I 



A TRAMP TO CALIFORNIA. 187 

thought was opposite the herd, 1 carefully ascended the 
knoll. I saw one get up. I fired at him. He ran a little 
ways, then fell dead. Just as I had reloaded my gun, 
three antelope ran past me ; aiming at one of them, I shot 
it, and when it had run on a few rods it tumbled over. 
I approached it, and unjointing the hip bone I carried 
the saddles off with me. I cut out tv/elve or fifteen 
pounds of the buffalo steak, and putting my gun barrel 
through the skin, which, by the way, I had left on for 
this purpose, I carried it over my shoulder. I could not 
find Hibbard, so I went on alone. 

I thought I was about ten miles north of the road. I 
started in a southwesterly direction. After a time I saw 
several elk, and a' little further along I saw a buffalo go 
down into a ravine. I approached, on my way, within 
five rods of it before it saw me. When it did it was 
frightened ana ran off. I was willing it should go. On, 
and still further on I went. I crossed a large flat piece 
of land, beyond which there was quite a formidable ridge. 
As I looked upon it, and with my eye picked my way to 
its summit, I saw five Indians standing near the top of it. 
I looked upon them and I thought they looked at me. I 
thought it rather mean in them to get so exactly in my 
way as -they had done, but resolved to go on and take my 
chances, and meet my fate with a brave heart. We were 
then in the Sioux country, not exactly in Tartary, but 
where good Tartars lived. As they saw me coming they 
seated themselves as though ready and waiting for me. 
Well! 1 thought, I'm ready for you; yes, and good for 
two of you any day. As I neared them, I found they 
were those red — y.men I had not expected to meet. My 
Indians proved to be friendly ones. They were Hibbard 
and four of our men, who left the train soon after we 
had started out in the morning. I was glad to find they 



188 WESTERN WILD ANIMALS. 

were white men, whom I knew. They had killed no 
game, and could help me carry mine. About two o'clock 
we came in sight of a small herd of buffaloes. The 
" boys " wanted me to shoot one of them. I crawled up 
in shooting distance of them, fired at one and broke his 
shoulder. He started and ran down the hill in a direc- 
tion partly towards the boys. They ran and surrounded 
him and commenced a series of firings upon him. I sat 
down to see the fun. They shot ten times, each man 
shooting twice. Chase advanced upon his victim, which 
was now in a hollow or sink hole. I called out, " Don't 
go any nearer ; you'll get hurt." But he replied, "I'm 
not afraid ; he is most dead ; there's a stream of blood 
running out of his mouth." Buffalo, .upon this depreci- 
ation of his ability to fight, put down his head, scraped 
the ground with his fore foot, and made one desperate 
leap for Chase. He was then about twenty feet from the 
buffalo. The former started in hot haste ; the latter fol- 
lowed close upon the rear. It was a run for life, and 
nea,rly even, too. The buff'alo ran about fifteen rods and 
laid him down to die. Chase stopped as soon as he 
learned the fate of his pursuer. Of all the yelling and 
screaming and jumping I have ever heard, theirs, during 
this little scene, was amongst the loudest, and withal the 
most ludicrous. Such scenes are not often paraded upon 
public or private stages : this scene was natural, and it was 
wild. The men were really, literally, actually frightened 
out of their senses for a little while ; but for the by- 
stander, who had advised a different course, yet who 
believed in the end they would come out unharmed, it was 
decidedly laughable. They cut off what meat they could 
carry. I took up my load and we went on, thankful for 
our fun, and as thankful that none of us had been hurt. 
We had had nothing to eat since sunrise: we had not 



A TMAMP TO CALIFORNIA. 189 

found any water ; but despite hunger and thirst we pushed 
our way onward with resolution. We had lost the road, 
but were determined to find it. We were very tired : one 
thought we ought to leave our meat; but the others 
thought it best to keep it for future use, in case we should 
ever get a chance to eat again. 

Just at dark we came to a brook. We could see, by 
their lights, thirty or forty Indians in camp not far from 
us. It was too dark for them to see us. With renewed 
courage we pushed on, not to their camp, but away from 
it, and our courage was doubtless increased by the hope 
of getting off without their knowledge of us. I believe 
we did the best that men could do, in picking our way 
along through the darkness, and in a strange country. In 
about an hour we struck the road. But here a new diffi- 
culty arose : we did not know whether our company had 
yet passed this point, whether they were in advance of us, 
or still behind us. The probabilities were, that in our 
circuitous marches upon our hunting grounds we had lost 
time, and that our men were westward of us. We 
resolved to go on until we should come to some camp. 
We fired our guns, but received no response. We trav- 
eled on another hour, then fired our guns again, and this 
time fire gave answer to fire. I need not tell you that we 
were joyful. 'Twas good news to us. Hoping that the 
shot came from our camp, we marched on with new life. 
Two of the men from camp were sent out to meet us. 
They proved to be our own men. We reached camp 
about eleven o'clock, exchanged joyful greetings, and re- 
citals of the day's adventures. They feared we had been 
captured or killed. I had never been so thirsty as I was 
that day. The only water we had found was at the brook 
where we saw the Indians. I had tasted of it; but it was 
strong alkali water, and not fit to drink ; what I did drink 



190 WESTEBN WILD ANIMALS. 

made me sick. Fhe next day I was not able to sit up. 

We had had no fresh meat to eat since leaving St. 
Joseph. The buffalo meat was dry and tough, the ante- 
lope's tender and good. The men ate very heartily of it, 
and one young man became very sick. It was Daven- 
port's boy who was sick. He grew worse for several days, 
and died. We had stopped our train during his sickness, 
and did everything for him that it was possible for us to 
do. Mr. Knapp preached his funeral sermon, and we 
laid him away in the best box that we could make, and 
drew a large flat stone and put it over his grave to keep the 
coyotes from digging him up. While we were in the midst 
of the funeral services the coyotes were on a knoll about 
sixty rods from us, fighting and howling so dismally that 
it was difficult to hear the preacher. They had doubtless 
scented the corpse, and were in angry waiting for a chance 
to tear it to pieces. 

A few mornings after, some buffaloes crossed the river, 
and came towards us. The men began to cry, " Cart- 
wright, Cartwright ! get out your gun, here's some game.'* 
I had resolved not to shoot another buffalo while crossing 
the plains, lest some one would be made sick by eating 
the unsavory, unhealthy stuff. I told them no. Then 
some of the men wanted the horses, and to go and hunt 
the buffaloes themselves. As there had been an agree- 
ment before starting that the hunters should not have 
the use of the horses, we denied them their request. 
Nutter and Johnson took the two mules of Virginia, as 
we called our Virginia comrade of whom we spoke at the 
time of our morning call from the Pawnees. They started 
on their hunt, after a while got separated from their party, 
ran three or four miles, a buffalo turned upon them to 
fight them : they shot it several times, and at last suc- 
ceeded in killing it. After this supply of buffalo meat had 



A TRAMP TO CALIFORNIA. 191 

been devoured, the men were satisfied, and did not again 
ask for any more, of such meat. 

We were still following the Platte river on its north 
side, and for two hundred miles we saw no trees. There 
was just one tree that stood upon an island, but it was 
dead, and there was only one limb upon it. It had 
doubtless been stripped for firewood. We were obliged 
to do as were other travelers across the plains, to use 
buffalo chips for our fires. We made ditches about eigh- 
teen inches wide, and building our fires in them, we would 
then put our kettles across the ditch. 

The Platte river, because of its sand bars, its rapidity, 
and its shallowness, is not navigable ; though it is wide. 
The valley through which it courses is remarkable for its 
length, and for its fertility in the eastern portion of it. 
Its width is from eight to fifteen miles. Plaving passed 
this section of the valley, and following up the north fork, 
we were fast approaching the " bad lands " which lay 
between us and the Black Hills. The soil was sandy, and 
was beginning to grow alkaline in its character. Grass 
was becoming scarce. The land back from the riveir was 
covered with a small brush called greasewood, and with 
wild sage The latter seems very much like wormwood. 
The prickly pear, or the cactus, grew in abundance. 
Acres upon acres are still covered with them. Buffaloes 
were becoming scarce, and antelopes were numerous. 
The company voted me clear from all other duties to hunt, 
and I furnished our own company, and those that had 
joined ours, with all the fresh meat, except one deer and 
one antelope, which was eaten upon the remainder of the 
journey. After getting an early breakfast I used to start 
on in advance of the teams, kill my antelope, drag it to 
the road, and go on. The men would pick it up as they 
reached the spot. Everything went off nicely when the 



192 WESTERN WILD ANIMALS. 

weather was favorable, and we did not drive so far as to 
tire out the men. Sometimes we would be obliged to 
drive until late to get where we could find water and 
grass. 

Our road was very good until we came to the Black 
Hills. The scenery on either side of our road was monot- 
onous. We were hemmed in by bluffs, which shut out 
from view the more picturesque landscape beyond, and 
we saw little for a long distance but the bottom lands, 
treeless, springless flats. The region known as the "bad 
lands," and close to the hills " is about thirty by ninety 
miles in extent, sunk away from its prairie surroundings 
with almost vertical sides, and is about three hundred feet 
deep in its lowest part. It is filled with innumerable 
pinnacles, columns, and irregular masses of earth and 
rock, separated by labyrinthine passages, nearly destitute 
of vegetation, bare and sterile, but rich in fossils, geo- 
logical treasures, and organic relics of extinct animals." 

For many miles along this section of the river the 
atmosphere is so clear that the extent of vision is almost 
incredible. Vv^hen we were opposite Chimney Rocks we 
were about five miles from the river, and about twenty- 
five or thirty miles from the rocks ; yet we could dis- 
tinctly see them, and could also trace the outlines of trees 
as they stood against them. One man told me that he 
had traveled the road on the south side of the Platte, and 
that after seeing the rocks he traveled more than half a 
day to reach them, and gave it up. They stand probably 
fifty feet high, and bear a strong resemblance to an assem- 
blage of old chimneys. I saw teams, men, and one day 
an antelope at the distance of eight miles. A man at a 
distance of three miles would seem to be ten or twelve 
feet tall. We usually traveled sixteen or eighteen miles, 



A TRAMP TO CALIFORNIA. 193 

and yet, while here, we could at night look back to our 
camping ground of the previous night. 

About seventy-five miles of our journey through the 
Black Hills was very mountainous, and in places as poor. 
The road led back from the Platte, because the moun- 
tains came, in many places, abruptly to the river. One 
day there seemed to be a city some six or eight miles west 
of us. It proved to be the case ; for the place is known 
as Rock City ; but the city, though built of stone houses 
at a comfortable distance apart, is yet uninhabited. The 
rocks and piles of stone are, at a distance, quite house- 
like in appearance. 

When we reached Ft, Laramie we traded off some of 
our sore-footed oxen. A man was there whose business it 
was to exchange cattle with travelers. Two days out 
from the Fort we saw an immense drove of cattle on the 
road. Of course we wished ourselves ahead of them, 
and Nutter commenced a race. We drove for two days 
and one night, stopping in that time only long enough to 
cook and eat our victuals. Any detailed description of 
our table manners upon the road during this hurried 
march, would be, if in keeping with the meals themselves, 
so soon given that you might think that we ate nothing. 
But we did. Suffice it to say that the meals were as en- 
joyable as all the circumstances in the case would allow, 
or as any that the young folks take when the old folks are 
away from home. There was more jollity than formality. 
We were on a spree, were not exactly on dress parade, 
nor on exhibition ; for there were no wayside spectators. 
Some of the jolliest times we had on the route were 
during those two days. I have not, in the twenty-two 
years, forgotten to laugh at some of the ridiculous per- 
formances of that cattle race. The horses and cattle of 
the opposing party were fresh and strong, full of spirits, 

13 



Id4 WESTERJS WILD ANIMALS. 

and running as if for life. We were to pass through bar- 
ren lands, and the foremost party of course stood the 
better chance of finding water and grass. We won the 
race, and our reward was therefore the better feed. 

We soon struck the Sweet Water river. To the left of 
the road, as we neared this stream, we saw a famous rock, 
which in its coloring resembles the pipe stone rock. 
Hundreds of names are inscribed upon it, truly indicative 
of the " Young America " spirit, calling for honor and 
renown. Two miles from this rock there is a small alka- 
line lake. The deposits of alkali which are formed when 
the lake dries up in the summer, are in some places of a 
considerable depth. Wagon loads of it may be, and are, 
then gathered with little difficulty. It is the common 
pearlash or soda, of commerce. 

The Colonel and myself went out to the lake, and on 
Hearing it we saw a huge buffalo wolf a few rods from 
us. He was sitting on his haunches, and looking at us. 
Having foolishly left our guns with the teams, we could 
only do the best thing that circumstances might dictate. 
W^e picked up a stone and threw it at him. He greeted 
its harsh reception by rising in a decidedly snarling mood. 
His only attempt at smiling at the honor of a call from 
white men was an extended stretch of the mouth, with a 
marvelous display of white, ugly teeth. To meet this 
stranger any more than halfway, was to look into the jaws 
of death, if, indeed, not to enter the same. We had no idea 
of traveling in that direction. If we had seriously at- 
tempted it, our purpose would have been thwarted, for at 
every step of ours, which brought us nearer him, that we 
might, if possible, stone him to death, like the coward 
that he was he retreated. It was a long time, however, 
before he left us. There was but one thing that prevented 
his feasting on ihe sweets of our flesh, and that was his 



A TRAMP TO CALIFORNIA. 195 

natural cowardice in the presence of an antagonist, and 
the extremity of cowardice in the presence of a fearless 
human bei::g. Many persons who live near the habita- 
tions of wolves, or who travel through their countries, 
would sleep better at night, and rest better by day if they 
would allow themselves to believe the truth of this state- 
ment, that wolves, though ferocious animals, are sneaks 
and cowards, and rarely attack men. Their howls make 
the night hideous, and their distorted features make one 
cringe ; but, belonging to the dog family, as they do, the 
saying that " barking dogs never bite " is applicable to 
them. Even now I regret that I left my gun in camp 
that day. Such an impertinent staring at as we received at 
the hands, or, more literally, from the eyes and the jaws 
of that wolf, should not have gone unpunished. If we 
had only had those guns that day, we would have issued 
his death warrant from our gun barrels, and with our balls 
would have executed it upon his luckless head. 

We followed the north side of the Sweet Water for 
twenty miles, then crossed it. At the point of crossing 
there was a ferry. The boat was small, and it was by a 
very tedious process that teams were conveyed across the 
river. There were a number of companies at the ferry, 
each one waiting its turn to cross. At the rate of pas- 
sage, we would be obliged to wait three or four days 
before we could move on. True to his instincts, Nutter 
planned a way of escape for us from such tedious waiting. 
The river was high, but he believed we could ford it. We 
raised our wagon boxes as we had done before, and fast- 
ening ropes to the lower side of each box, drew it over 
the top, and with some men on the up stream side to 
hold the ropes and keep the wagons from turning as we 
struck the current, we started in. All of the men were 
taken over on horseback. The first one who went over 



196 WESTERN WILD ANIMALS. 

carried a rope, one end of which was fastened to the fore- 
most yoke of oxen. The oxen were hitched to the 
wagons as when upon the road. There were men on 
horseback on the down stream side to whip up the cattle 
as they struck the deep water. Our risky undertaking 
came out all right, and in half a day we were safely 
crossed to the further bank of the river. 

One of the men in the crowd of those waiting a trans- 
port, having seen us cross, thought to follow suit. Having 
taken no precaution for the safe passage of his wagon 
boxes, when his teams struck the current, despite his 
best efforts at that late moment, they were turned first 
down stream, and then over into it. He lost almost all 
of his supplies, and it was with the utmost difficulty that 
he kept his team from drowning. He had been advised 
not to drive in as he did ; but he was one of your self- 
willed men, who know their own business, and whose 
success in life is the measure of the soundness of their 
judgment. 

The road on the south side of the Sweet Water was 
level and good. It was a well traveled road, and prob- 
ably as good as any country thoroughfare in any of our 
States. Soon after crossing the river we reached Devil's 
Gate. The ridge of rocks which lies on both sides of the 
river averages about three hundred feet in height, and 
extends nearly north and south, reaching about a mile on 
the north side of the river, and thirty or forty rods on the 
south side. As we first observed it, it seemed like one 
solid rock, possibly five hundred feet v/ide. On the south 
side it slopes gradully from the river to the ground. We 
reached it early in the morning and camped for a few 
hours to look at it more carefully. As we ascended the 
rock, we found on reaching the river that there was a 
clean cut passage for the flow of the water. The stream 



A TRAMP TO CALIFORNIA. 197 

as it passes through the rocks is fifteen or twenty feet 
wide. The rocky wall, as we looked over it into the 
river, is neither perpendicular nor perfectly smooth ; but 
there are here and there projecting crags, many of which 
at our distance from them looked tiny, but could we 
have been near them, and they were in keeping with the 
general structure of the rocks, would have looked mas- 
sive. Could we have seen the man who thought that the 
Natural Bridge must have been built by the Devil, and 
could have shown him this wonderful gateway, we presume 
he w^ould have said that the post holes had been dug, the 
posts made and set by the same dignified personage. We 
did not think that, and were not unimpressed with the 
grandeur of the scene, and did not leave it without an 
increased reverence for the great architect of the universe. 
On a crag about one hundred and fifty feet from the top 
of the rock, there lay the body of a man. How, or when, 
or why he had reached that spot, none of us knew ; if he 
had been murdered by a white man or a red, if he had 
accidentally fallen over, or had willfully thrown himself 
over, were equally undecidable questions. One of the 
hands had in some way become unjointed, and lay at the 
surface close to us. It had doubtless been carried there 
by some vulture-like creature : the flesh had been picked 
off, evidently by some bird. Mr. Knapp carried it to 
California; but what afterwards became of it I do not 
know. 

Our road through the Sweet Water valley lay the most 
of the time close to the river, and it was generally good 
until we reached South Pass. At that place we reached 
the highest point on our route, the elevation being seven 
thousand four hundred and eighty-nine feet above the 
sea. The atmosphere at this height was so rare that it 
was difficult for ourselves and our cattle to breathe, and 



198 WESTERN WILD ANIMALS. 

doubly tiresome to march. The combination of varied 
scenery gave us a grand picture. There is a notch in the 
snow-capped mountain, a beginning of vegetation lower 
down, and a gradation of it, until, when we have looked 
to the foot of the grand old mountains, we could see a 
growth of heavy timber, magnificent in its growth and 
venerable in its age. The valley is perhaps three-quarters 
of a mile wide. The night that we reached the Pass, we 
camped by the Pacific Springs, and there first saw water 
that flows into the Pacific Ocean. 

We camped earlier than usual to look about. The 
most of the men took a tramp from the camp, some going 
in one direction, and some in another, some to look at 
the valley, and some to look upon and from the moun- 
tains. Some of the party saw elk and some saw mountain 
sheep. Several of the men who had been out together 
returned to camp in great excitement. They were not 
frightened, but wild with joy. They had reached a 
California good enough for them. They had found gold 
in large quantities. They had filled their pockets with 
the precious dust, to show to us poor fellows who had 
been so unfortunate as not to learn the fact so soon as 
they did. But unfortunately for them, their gold proved 
to be but mica, a yellow isinglass. 

Our first camping ground west of South Pass was 
sandy, upon the Little Sandy creek, which empties into 
the Green river. We were there obliged to fill our water- 
sacks with water. These sacks were made of rubber and 
would hold about twenty-five gallons. They were to be 
tied at the top like a grain sack. Our next day's tramp 
was a long and wearisome one. We marched about 
twenty miles to reach the Big Sandy, which also empties 
into the Green river. I say we marched ; for that we 
always did. No man could ride, unless unable to walk. 



A TRAMP TO CALIFORNIA. 199 

Nutter rode on horseback in advance of the company to 
look up camping grounds. The cooks followed him, to 
facilitate the cooking affairs. 

At the Big Sandy we again filled our water-sacks ; for 
we would find no water between any of the streams 
through this section of the country. Our cattle and our- 
selves too were obliged to drink the water carried in the 
sacks. As we could have none any better, we were 
obliged to make the best of our condition, taking what 
little satisfaction we could from- the fact that all travelers 
upon the road must needs share as poor a fate ; but after 
all, we were really not so joyous over the fact that misery 
had its company, as appreciative of the sufferings of many 
who were not well provided with the means of transport- 
ing water, and whose sufferings were in many cases very 
distressing. Twenty-eight miles lie between the Big 
Sandy and the Green river. This we were obliged to 
make in our next march, or camp where we could find no 
water. The weather was very warm, it being about the 
first of June. We traveled at a slow rate, making only 
tw^o miles an hour. 

While eating our dinner we saw an antelope coming up 
from a rise of ground. The Colonel went onto a knoll 
near by, to attract its attention, while I went onto the 
other side of it to shoot it. I crawled throu.;h the sage 
brush, until I came as near to it as I wished to, then 
waited while the Colonel drew out a handkerchief, which 
he had tied to a stick, and waved it. When the antelope 
saw him, it started and before it had made its first circle, 
in its attempt to approach the object of its fright, it came 
within shooting distance of me, and I killed it. It was a 
beautiful specimen of the antelopian family, and furnished 
us with very palatable meat. 

At sunset we reached the Green river. It is not more 



200 WESTERN WILD ANIMALS. 

than ten rods wide, but is deep and swift. The road 
brought us to a ferry, by means of which we must cross 
the clear, cold, and beautiful waters of the stream. The 
rate of ferryage was very high. We paid twenty-five 
cents for every man, one dollar for every horse, one dollar 
for a yoke of oxen, and five dollars for every wagon. 
The boat was run by ropes and pulleys. The ferrymen 
were taking in, in those days of gold fever, from three 
hundred to five hundred dollars a day. We camped over 
night on the eastern bank of the river and were obliged 
to wait until noon before our turn should come to cross it. 
The last company to cross before we could go was a small 
one : it had packed mules. As one of the men was get- 
ting on his mule it jumped : the man was thrown off and 
his foot caught in the stirrup, and as the mule started off 
he was dragged along with his head upon the ground. 
The mule made a circle about twenty rods from the river, 
kicking at almost every step. When it reached the river 
side of its second circle, it plunged off into the stream, 
ran about half way across it, and then made a very short 
turn to come back. The mule was in deep water when 
it turned, and the man, whose foot was still held by the 
stirrup, was out of sight. He was probably kicked as the 
mule turned about; just then he threw his arm up out of 
the water, then disappeared forever. We took boats and 
tried to find him, but could not. 

That night we camped by a beautiful little stream 
beyond the Green river. We had here the prettiest 
camping ground of the entire route. The mountain 
stream, for such it was, was a tiny thing, but clear, 
sparkling, and beautiful as it rippled over its stony bot- 
tom. The valley on either side of it is not wide, but 
wide enough to furnish us ample room for ourselves, our 
stock and our goods. The hills immediately adjacent to 



A TRAMP TO CALIFORNIA. 201 

the stream are of moderate height, smooth, and as beau- 
tiful to look upon as are any to be found. Hills of greater 
height rise back of them. The scenery is not wild ; but 
for one of serene, joyous beauty it is a gem. In the 
morning we went on three or four miles and camped on 
the same stream. It was our rule that we should not 
camp two nights in the same place, though every seventh 
day we would rest ourselves and our teams. 

We found a great many wolves in this part of the coun- 
try. We saw the big buffalo wolves, the black wolves and 
the gray ones, and the coyotes or prairie wolves. Those 
last named were the most plenty, and were the noisiest of 
them all. One night one came into the camp and carried 
off our kettle cover. This kettle was really our tea kettle, 
a dish made of sheet iron, one that would hold twelve 
quarts. It had a tin cover. This the wolf cairied off, and 
we found it outside of the camp, badly bruised with the 
angry gnawings it had received. One day I saw a very 
large white or buffalo wolf, and four black ones following 
it. What was the intention of these black, fiendish crea- 
tures was more than I could tell. The large one was 
either trotting or galloping along : the black ones, follow- 
ing close upon the rear, would snap at him; but as soon 
as he would turn upon them they would retreat. When 
he would turn around and run on, they v/ould follow suit, 
and would snap at him, and bite him again. They went 
around a knoll and were out of sight- I went onto the 
knoll, but could not see them. While there looking for 
them, I saw an antelope ; but it was beyond shot- I 
secreted myself behind some grease wood and raised a 
■handkerchief. The antelope saw the handkerchief: it 
ran in a circle about me ; then it made a series of half 
circles, with every half circle coming nearer me, until 
when it had come within shot of me, I fired and killed it. 



202 WESTERN WILD ANIMALS. 

The demoralizing influence of such a Hfe as men led 
while crossing the continent as they did in those years, 
when the accommodations for travel were so poor, when 
men must pass through the countries of so many hostile 
tribes of the red man, and when the excitement for gold- 
digging almost crazed hundreds of men, the demoralizing 
influences, I say, were only with the greatest care resisted. 
Men leading a sort of nomadic life, cooking, washing, 
mending, doing everything for themselves, sleeping out of 
doors night after night, walking seldom less than several 
miles and often m.any almost every day for months, many 
times regardless of the weather, traveling as best they 
could over unbridged streams and mountain roads, seeing 
no white men upon the road except those traveling like 
themselves, either east or west, and the ferry-men and 
government officers at a few points upon the way, sur- 
rounded at night by the wild beasts in their wild homes, 
followed by day by the same blood-thirsty creatures, and 
upon the greater portion of the route subject to a sudden 
attack from the Indians, such men often became strangely 
reckless. They became reckless of their health, of their 
manners, of their morals, of the comfort of their feliow- 
travelers, and reckless of life itself. They often displayed 
that extremity of recklessness that by its very demorali- 
zation still evinces the superior workmanship of man's 
Creator, beings created in the image of God, but who by 
the development of their baser natures may become fit 
only to populate a hell. 

Two men who had been neighbors in Connecticut 
doubled their teams and traveled together. They had 
four mules and two wagons. They carried two young 
men with them. After a long time the owners of the 
teams got into a dispute, which grew hot and then hotter. 
One wanted to go faster than the other. The latter pro- 



A TRAMP TO CALIFORNIA. 203 

posed that they divide their goods and teams, and let 
each man take his own time. They did so, and the for- 
mer went on at his desired fast rate. The latter, taking 
his march more moderately, overtook him on the fourth 
day. He had stopped at the foot of a hill worn out, and 
his beasts unable to draw their load up the steep road. 
As he saw his acquaintance approach him he asked him 
if he would hitch his team on to his own and help him 
draw his wagon up the hill. The man said " no," that he 
had all he could do to get his own team through, and told 
him wherein he had failed, that he should have taken the 
advice not to go so fast. It was the old, old story of " I 
told you so." The slow man started his team up the hill. 
The fast man asked if he wasn't going to help him. He 
said " no." The fast man then stepped to his own wagon, 
took out his gun, walked to his neighbor, and in the 
presence of the two young men, killed him instantly. He 
then stayed by the young men, not even offering to escape 
from them. 

When the next company reached them the young men 
told of him. The new-made grave also testified of his 
guilt. They carried him with them about three miles 
beyond, where they camped for the night by a stream. 
Two or three companies following stopped there with 
them. They kept him in custody, and at night they 
formed a jury, and appointed a judge. The two young 
men were the witnesses. He was pronounced guilty and 
sentenced to be shot. Blanks were drawn and three men 
who should draw them were to shoot him. We reached 
the place the night following the morning of his execu- 
tion. The two young men were still there, having stopped 
with the ferrymen. The prices charged at this ferry were 
also exorbitant. Again, through the management of our 
Captain, we succeeded in fording the stream, rather than 



204 WESTERN WILD ANIMALS. 

to pay the price, and be so long waiting our tarn. We 
went forty or fifty rods down stream and crossed it in 
satety to ourselves and our goods, by such management 
as on a previous occasion already described. The young 
men took the teams that had fallen into their hands, and 
traveled with us until we reached Steamboat Springs, on 
Bear river. 

A few days after this we overtook a woman who was 
sitting on a wagon tongue. She was entirely alone. Of 
course we heard her story; for we were anxious to know 
why she should be thus left alone, and in such a place. 
She said her husband's cattle had drunk so much alkaline 
water that they were sick, and were all going to die. He 
was watching them. His brother who was traveling with 
them, was discouraged, and unwilling to share their fate 
with them, or even to help them out of their trouble, had 
gone on and left them. She was moaning and bewailing 
her lot, and begged us to kill her. Her distress had so 
overcome her that she was anxious to be put out of her 
misery, even by facing a rifle shot. She was so crazed 
that she was unaccountable for her words or her wishes. 
We could do but little for her. She could not l^ave her 
husband, and he could not then leave his cattle. We 
overtook her brother-in-law about four miles from where 
we found her, and prevailed upon him to go back and 
help them. 

We were at this time traveling through the country of 
the Crow Indians. They were friendly, and we were glad. 
Our cattle not being so carefully watched while we were 
traveling amongst the Crows, strayed from camp one 
night, and in the morning when we went out to find them 
we came upon a camp of the Indians, and they went out 
with us, to help us find them. Well, why couldn't all the 
Indians be " good Indians," and not keep us in such a 



A TRAMP TO CALIFORNIA. 205 

state of excitement, as they often did ? Our travels 
through the Crow country were not unmarked with ])leas- 
urable events ; but, as you cannot turn your attention from 
those events, possibly uninteresting to you, and actually 
behold the country through which we passed, nor its in- 
habitants, it may be well to sum up the matter by saying 
that our journey through this section of the country was 
in some respects unusually pleasing. It gave us rest from 
those anxieties that were upon us when we made such 
long, hard marches by day, and watched so sharp by 
night, when among hostile red men. Possibly some of 
the boys would like to know that for twelve sucessive 
days I killed an antelope. The day before we reached 
Bear River mountain I saw an antelope, and asked Hib- 
bard to go with me to shoot it. He went on beyond the 
animal, intending to fire when all should be right for it. 
The wind was blowing so fiercely that he could not stand 
still, and he feared that the motion would frighten the 
animal. He therefore shot, but the wind miscarried the 
ball. The antelope, in its fright at the shot, turned 
towards me, and I killed it. We were about two miles 
from the road. 

Before reaching it, we came upon a party of Indians, 
forty or fifty in number. Their camp was near us. They 
were all mounted on horses. They stopped and saluted 
us, and performed for our benefit, or our amusement, I 
cannot say which, their war maneuvers. They would 
lean far over upon one side of their horses, as if they 
would hide behind them, and would bend their bows as 
if shooting upon an enemy, from under the necks of their 
ponies. They divided into two companies, to show us 
what they could do, and how they would do it, were they 
in an earnest fight. They had war clubs hanging upon 
one arm, in which there were notches, varying in number 



206 WESTERN WILD ANIMALS. 

according to the number of those whom they had scalped. 
One of them had a club upon which he proudly showed 
us seventeen notches. When we reached our company, 
which had, meantime, gone on some little distance, and 
had camped for dinner, we found the Indians already 
there. They there performed their feats again, and I may 
say to the pleasure of all. It was pleasant to meet 
friendly Indians in a far western wild home, and to see 
them acting according to their own customs. They were 
en route for Steamboat Springs, or the Bear, or Soda 
Springs, as they are also called. 

That afternoon we doubled our teams to cross the Bear 
River Mountain. It is so very steep that it is impossi- 
ble to cross it by any ordinary driving. It was the steep- 
est, and almost the highest mountain crossing on our 
road. We hitched six yoke of oxen to a wagon, and by 
dint of perseverance we succeeded in reaching the sum- 
mit. We then left our wagons, and went back after the 
others. The road on the east side of the mountain was 
possibly two miles long. To get our teams down the 
mountain we were obliged to take off five yoke of oxen, 
to tie the four wheels together, to put a chain from the 
forward wheel over the wagon box, and have two men at 
the rear to hold onto the chain, to have two men to hold 
down each upper wheel, and a man in front to hold the 
teams and keep them from going too fast. We dispensed 
with drivers for the time being. None of these precau- 
tions were unnecessary, for the road was so very steep. 
The road was possibly three-quarters of a mile long on 
the western slope of the mountain. This road was a new 
one, and very rough and poor ; yet it was a decided im- 
provement upon the old one crossing the mountain : for- 
merly travelers had been obliged to take their wagons to 
pieces to get them over in safety. 



A TRAMP TO CALIFORNIA. 207 

The Bear River valley is very beautiful. The Soda 
Springs produces blood warm soda water, which, when it 
is sweetened, tastes like our soda water summer drink. 
Three miles beyond it, we saw the Steamboat Spring, 
otherwise called Windmill Rock, and Old Crater. The 
rock from which the water issues is about four feet high, 
and four across it, and is nearly round. There is a hole 
in the center six inches in diameter. The water comes 
through this hole, and is forced about fifteen feet high. 
It shoots as if forced by wind or steam, and makes a 
noise, as it issues from the stone, like that of a high pres- 
sure engine in a steamboat. Water springs from the rock 
about twice in a minute. It is like the water of the Soda 
Springs, but not quite so strong in its alkaline quality. 
We reached Steamboat Spring in the morning, and re- 
mained there until the following morning. 

We found our friends of the previous day already there, 
and, besides them, others. There might have been a 
thousand of them. There were six tribes met in council. 
They were very friendly, full of fun, a jolly, good-natured 
set of men. We enjoyed our afternoon spent with those 
Indians, and think of it as one of the brightest spots 
upon the road. If you say that all Indians are lazy, 
thievish, treacherous, I am still as sure as though no one 
doubted it, that these men were as friendly, genial, and 
manly, in all that we saw of them, as any one could well 
demand of any person. It was well worth the few hours 
that we waited, to see a bona-fide Indian council, assem- 
bled in so great numbers, and upon their own grounds, 
talking and acting in their own natural way. 

Some of you lovers of horses, would not have been at 
a loss for enjoyment. Many of their ponies were very 
fine, and their races were beyond anything in that line 
that I have ever witnessed. You who would not be known 



208 WESTERN WILD ANIMALS. 

to attend a horse fair, and you who delight in the race, 
would have been stupid, if you had not enjoyed this sight. 
Fine horses, a great many of them, expert drivers and as 
many of them, and the matchless races ! They came 
about us and asked us if we had any race horses, and if 
we would bet with them on their horses. 

As we took our march from Steamboat Spring, we left 
the Ft. Hall road, and took the California road to strike 
the Humboldt. On this road, which was in good con- 
dition, we found plenty of water, because we crossed 
so many creeks running into the Snake river. The feed 
was good and abundant. 

One day we found a two-headed snake. A part of the 
company was in advance of the rest of it, by some little 
distance, and finding the snake as they passed along they 
killed it as they supposed. But quite like the poor rule 
that doesn't work both ways, it is a poor two-headed 
snake that can't work itself both ways, and as its two 
heads were really better than one, it had commenced to 
crawl away from its murderers. When we who were 
behind reached the spot we found it still alive. It was a 
little thing : it measured sixteen inches in length : in size 
it was at one end about like a lead-pencil, the other end 
being larger. There were two perfectly developed heads, 
but the one at the tail end was the smaller one. It could 
crawl as well one way as the other. If a stick were put 
in front of either head it would back away from it. 

The Digger Indians lived along the Humboldt river. 
They are the lowest, most degraded, filthiest beings of 
their race. I have no doubt that they will do as it is said 
they will, dig up the bodies of dead men and eat them. 
As we came into their country at the head of the Hum- 
boldt, we found traces of their murderous raids. We 
found graves of men whom they had murdered : there 



A TRAMP TO CALIFORNIA. 209 

were head-boards at their graves upon which were marked 
the dates of their murder. We found one new-made 
grave. The man buried therein had been shot only a 
few days before, while on guard. We kept a double 
watch at night while in their country. 

The Humboldt is a narrow stream, which runs down 
in sinks, and empties into a lake of the same name. It 
runs over a sandy soil and is always riley. We followed 
it for a long, long distance, on the north side of it. We 
went over a sandy, desolate plain, a fit abode of such 
carrion-like creatures as the Diggers, and yet it is more 
than possible that the climatic influences, and the almost 
complete destitution of vegetable or animal food are 
strong impelling influences which drive them to man- 
slaughter for the preservation of their lives. There were 
willows along the river banks, and in some places the 
clusters were dense. By the bends of the streams there 
were patches of excellent grass. 

It was some time before we saw any of the Diggers ; 
but we had reason to believe that they stealthily watched 
our camp almost every night. In the morning we would 
find their moccasin tracks ten or twelve rods from the 
camp. One night while on a bend in the river, some of 
the men shot off their guns. ^ They happened to fire into 
one of the clumps of willows, and five Indians who were 
secreted there came out and ran across the river in the 
shortest time imaginable. Had they been running after 
us, it would not have been so laughable : as it was, it was 
about the funniest thing of the sort I've ever seen. They 
were badly frightened and ran for life. One morning we 
came upon the camping ground of a party of white men, 
which was then tv/o or three miles in advance of us. One 
of their oxen had died the night before, and the Indians 
so soon after their leaving the camp had carried oft' the 



210 WESTERN WILD ANIMALS. 

most of the meat. We saw none of them while passing 
through the ground ; but as w^e reached the top of a hill, 
but a short distance beyond, we looked back and saw 
several of them emerging from the willows. One very- 
bright night I was with four others on guard. I thought 
on such a night I should surely see the Indians, if they 
did come about us. Our cattle had been turned out for 
grazing upon one of the grassy spots at a bend in the 
river. I lay all night on the ground by the side of an ox, 
that w^as also lying down ; but I did not see one of them. 
Again, in the morning, we found their tracks not more 
than ten rods from us. 

The 4th of July found us near where we left the Hum- 
boldt. We stopped our march in the middle of the 
afternoon to celebrate the day as best we could. We 
knew that the inhabitants of the country were not in full 
sympathy with such a movement. All we asked of them, 
however, was to let us alone. We lired our guns, first, 
simultaneously, then in rotation, and v/e got up the best 
supper that could be provided. . Uncle Sam has never 
complained of us for not doing better that day. 

Not far from South Pass w^e met a company of twenty- 
five returning from Yreka County, California. On leaving 
the big bend of the Humboldt, we turned from the main 
California road which led directly to San Francisco. We 
took a north-westerly course and followed the directions 
of this party. They described a road which had been 
traveled in 1849, and which led directly to Sacramento. 
We followed it for one hundred miles, then made a road 
of our own, only as in places we followed the trail of this 
party. On those places which I have called their trail, 
there had never been a white man's track except theirs. 

We left the Humboldt in the afternoon, purposing to 
travel by night while we crossed the alkaline desert of 



A TRAMP TO CALIFORNIA. 21 1 

the Humboldt Valley. This valley, so called, is, how- 
ever, only a section of the Great Basin, the comparatively 
level connecting land between two of the lofty ranges of 
the grand Rocky Mountain system. Through this valley,. 
as also through north-western California, and south- 
eastern Oregon there are many evidences of geological 
disturbances. Many of the hills, devoid of vegetation,, 
are thickly covered over with a crumbled mass of rocks 
and stones of varying sizes, evidently the work of vol- 
canic action : springs of warm, of hot, and of boiling 
water are common, 3.nd extensive tracts — of land can I 
call it } — of alkaline salts spread but before the eye. 
These fields of glistening salt are at first sight beautiful 
to look upon. The atmosphere, which over this section 
of the country is exceedingly clear, lends enchantment to 
the view, an extra polish to such desert sand ; but to the 
weary west-bound traveler, to whom a pleasant change 
of scenery would be a rest, the monotony of such a deso- 
late desert becomes tiresome and depressing to his spirit. 
Besides, the glare of the white desert waste is blinding. 
It is, therefore, unsafe for men to travel over them by 
daylight. 

The first morning after leaving the Humboldt, we 
reached a spring of very warm water. A beautiful little 
stream made out from this spring, and close by it we found 
a patch of good grass. We made our camp there for the 
day. Upon leaving it we came upon the same white, 
barren desert, and all along this road, for a distance of 
eighteen miles, we found the remains of terrible destruc- 
tions of camps, of all that pertains to them, of men, of 
cattle, of wagons, and of other camp and traveling fur- 
nishings. We found cattle dried up, the flesh shriveled, 
but nowhere broken, the hair perfectly preserved. We 
found where wagons had been left standing, and in some 



213 WESTERN WILD AimiALS. 

■cases the wooden parts had been burned, the earth and air 
being so exceedingly hot here, nothing but the wheels were 
kft. Some of the wagons were in a perfect state of preserva- 
tion ; the chains were not unhitched from them, and in 
■one case the cattle had turned the wagon a little from the 
road, and had then laid down and died. 

Early on the following morning we reached the Boiling 
Spring. It is at th*e foot of a very high mountain, and 
measures about twelve feet across it. The' mountain 
sides were covered with small burnt stones. There was 
not a tree, nor shrub, nor spear of grass to be seen any- 
where upon the mountain. The spring evinced the still 
angry elements under Dame Nature's control, the stone- 
capped mountain the traces of past anger, of changes that 
were doubtless slow, but that in themselves were grand. 

The water of the spring was, as the name indicates, 
iDoiling hot. We dipped water from it, and steeped our 
tea in it without other boiling. What could be the harm 
in that ? It is said that fish are sometimes found in boil- 
ing springs, and that from their motions they do not seem 
to be away from home, or out of their sphere. They 
must be boiled fish. It must then be all right to boil 
•one's tea in such a spring. Afterwards some of the men 
washed clothing with this hot water, and tying ropes to 
the garments threw them into the spring to be boiled. 
The fastidious need to share a little of the rough experi- 
ences contingent upon such a journey, or, if they will not, 
we refuse to hear their reproaches for such a method of 
procedure. Besides, we found here a combination cook 
stove and boiler, which, so far as" we knew, had not been 
patented. As we were all lovers of filthy lucre, we 
wished to know what good purpose such an invention 
might serve, and if possible some money might be made 
out of it. Of this I am certain, we would have earned 



A TEAMF TO CALIFORNIA. 213 

some credit, if not cash, had we soon after this day's 
labor met any jaded and dirty looking fellows from the west. 

From the Boiling Spring a good sized stream runs, but 
settles into the ground about a mile further on. We found 
good grass for some distance along the stream. As we 
had twenty-eight miles to travel before we should find 
water again, we took a vote of the company, getting one 
^majority in favor of starting on at four o'clock in the 
afternoon. We had traveled all night for the two nights 
previous, and as it was so hot all along the road we could 
not sleep during the day : we were, therefore, very tired, 
and many of us were not fit to march on. There was no 
chance for any of the men to ride, unless one should be 
too sick to keep up. Our cattle had all they could do to^ 
carry our stuff. Rogers and myself gave out. We put 
our traps into a wagon, and lay down upon our warm 
spring bed. These springs v^^ere a stange invention, they 
would spring down, but not up : it was more like what I 
might, from its softness, call a feather bed. We deter- 
mined to sleep, at all events. As it began to grow light 
we took up our march, and very soon found two others 
who had given out by the way. Every two or three miles 
we found some of the party along the road. Among the 
stragglers we found an old man v/hom we always called 
Indiana. He had urged the forward march, and as we 
came up to him he said, '' Go on, I've sent on my vote for 
the march, whether I ever catch up or not." We over- 
took our teams in the middle of the forernoon. They 
had kept up until six in the morning. We rested with 
them until the next morning. 

By taking this northirn route we had less than thirty 
miles of travel across the desert between watering places. 
The ordinary route would have obliged us to go sixty or 
seventy miles without water. 



214 WESTERN WILD ANIMALS. 

'Thirty miles beyond the desert our road lay for six 
miles in a canon. A stream ten or twelve feet wide found 
its way between the two lofty mountains. There was 
possibly a distance of six rods between the mountain on 
one side and the stream on the other side of this deep, 
dark passage. All along perpendicular walls of rock 
loomed up on either side, varying in height from one 
hundred to four hundred feet. In some places the rocky 
walls must have been four hundred feet for a long distance. 
Our road lay over very rough and stony ground. The 
stones were large, and it was with difficulty that we could 
drive. It was emphatically a hard road for man or beast. 
■Sometimes the pass was so narrow that we were obliged 
to drive through t've water; but this we could do, for the 
stream was shallow. 

We camped one night in this narrow bed. At our 
camping spot, it would hardly do to call it ground, there 
was a cave, the entrance to v^'hich was four feet high and 
six wide ; the interior measured eighteen by twenty-two 
feet, and the height at the center was twelve feet. In 
this cave a dozen of us slept. In the canon we found 
several barrels of whiskey that had been left here in 1849. 
The Indians had found them, and had opened them and 
taken out several gallons from one barrel. The whiskey 
had spoiled in every barrel except one. wSome of our 
men lived, to their shame be it said, high and fast that 
night, and found themselves '' tight " before they got out 
of the place. We found a blacksmith's vice and an anvil 
in the cave. They were new, but slightly rusted. 

When we emerged from this canon we found some 
timber, and were not again out of sight of timber. We 
soon saw game. I saw some antelope on one side of the 
Toad. I went out and shot one, and put the saddles upon 



A TRAMP TO CALIFORNIA. 215 

my back and followed up the company. We had had no 
fresh meat for a couple of weeks. 

Just after I reached the road I heard some noise behind 
m.e. On turning about to learn its source, I saw a wolf 
not more than a dozen rods off. I laid down my venison 
to attend to his wants, as he had without doubt called 
me. But as I turned towards him, he turned his back 
upon me. He didn't want me, after all ; so I went on. 
Again he growled and followed me : again I turned upon 
him, and he as soon from me. Both times when he left 
me he hid in some sage brush. I did not see him after 
■his second hiding. 

About this time we struck a spur of the Sierra Nevada, 
and at its base before us lay a beautiful valley. In this 
valley we found the finest clover one could set eyes upon. 
It was like our common red clover, but of uncommon 
growth. It was gotten up on the California principle of 
doing everything on a large scale. As we walked through 
it, the tops of it would reach the shoulders of our tall 
men. Some of the blossoms were white, but were as 
large as the red ones. We also found our common white 
clover : the blossoms and the leaves were small, but the 
stalks grew as high as the red clover stalks. The most 
of it was lodged. It was excellent wild feed. 

As we were going up this valley we saw a lake, and 
some antelope at the left of the lake. The Colonel, who 
was, by the way, one of the bravest men I have ever 
known, went with me to get one of them. Soon after we 
started we saw not far ahead of us several Indians. The 
Indians here were hostile. I said to Mr. Holmes, having 
■first spied them, " Shall we turn about and go to our com- 
pany, or go on and meet them V He stopped a moment, 
ripped out an oath (for I've heard him do such a thing 
when under great excitement, or when determination 



216 WESTERN WILD ANIMAL8. 

was fired by desperation), and said : " No ! we'll go on 
and meet them. I'm good for three of them, and I know 
you are for two." He 'counted five and had them all 
provided for. If the Colonel felt any fear, I could not 
with the most careful scrutiny detect it. Why we should 
have escaped harm at the hands of the Digger Indians 
and of some others whom we had met, I cannot tell, even 
now. The fact that we had so many times escaped from 
their vengeful hands was no evidence that we should at 
this time : it really only lessened the probabilities in our 
favor. I confess my mind was full of queryings as we 
neared them. But we did then, as we had always tried > 
to do when in the presence of hostile Indians, we met 
them with a boldness that covered our fears, yet was not 
ostentatious. Marching thus through their midst, we 
managed as circumstances at the time dictated, and came 
off unscalped, unharmed, and were undisturbed only by 
the weakening influence of the relaxation of our fears, as 
we saw on reaching them that they were five of our own 
men. We had supposed that the road would take us to 
the right of the lake : having, then, no reason to suppose 
that there were white men near us, except in our com- 
pany which we had left behind us, our imagination 
claimed dominion over us and a right to say that the 
men were Indians, and no doubt of it. The road, how- 
ever, led to the left of the lake. 

We camped for the night by a spring at the base of a 
very high mountain. This was one of our specially 
beautiful camping grounds. There were lofty, magnifi- 
cent pine trees upon the mountain whose tops were 
almost out of sight. The trunks were large and clear of 
branches for a long ways up from the ground, thus afford- 
ing a clear, clean passage underneath. Could a few acres 
of these pine trees be transplanted to some prairie of the 



A TBAMP TO CALIFORNIA. 217 

Western States, or even to the mountainous East, they 
would become the wonder and the admiration of the 
country round and the enviable picnic ground of any 
community. The valley was covered with a luxurient 
growth of grass. It seemed as though nature must have 
designed it for the habitation of a more civilized, more 
appreciative people than such Indians as lived there. 

But who shall say that the Indian who knows every 
stream and dell, every mountain and mountain pass of 
his country, has no appreciation of the beauties of nature 1 
Some of them were, to say no more of it, sadly behind 
their privileges if they did not love to look upon many of 
the sections through which we passed. Could this place 
have been inhabited by intelligent white men, I could 
have been easily satisfied to spend the remainder of my 
days within its precincts. 

In the morning we commenced the ascent of the moun- 
tains. I say mountains ; for there were a series of them, or 
of foot hills, as the lower ones are called, every next one 
higher than the one we were then ascending. We reached 
the summit of the mountains in the afternoon. Holmes 
and I left the teams, to search for game. We were going 
slowly down the mountains, when I saw to the left of me 
(now this was not an Indian scare) a very nice buck 
standing behind a log. I could see about one-third of 
his body above the log. I fired at him. The Colonel 
had not seen it, and inquired what I did that for. The 
animal ran on a few rods and fell. After drawing it to 
the road we left it for the men to pick up when they 
should come along. 

We went down to the valley and camped for the night. 
By that camp I saw the largest bear's track that I have 
ever seen. It measured twelve and a half inches in 
length and seven in width. We there found a fallen pine 



218 WESTERN WILD ANIMALS. 

tree measuring seventy-five paces. We were not amongst 
the giants of the forest, the big trees of California, and 
are not telling stories to see which can beat, we in telling, 
or you in believing. 

In the morning I started early to find game. I went 
further down the valley and saw six antelope feeding. I 
went up around them and got in ahead of them. When 
they came up within fire I shot one. The others ran 
towards the camp, and the men seeing them, spread them- 
selves, unnoticed by the timid creatures until they saw 
themselves fairly surrounded. They did not wait long, 
however, before starting to run between the men. Seve- 
ral shot at them ; but none of them were hit, and fortu- 
nately none of the men were hurt, though they had been 
shooting towards each other. 

That day we began to see signs of (he Indians, their 
tracks, their fires. The next day they began to build 
fires close to the road, sometimes on one side and some- 
times on the other; but they themselves kept in advance 
of us, so that we did not see them. The third day after 
crossing the mountain we left the old road, the one 
traveled in 1849. We crossed a stream which runs into 
Sacramento, and taking a north-westerly course, we had 
nothing to guide us but the trail of the party which we 
had met at South Pass. We stopped for dinner by the 
stream, and afterwards when we had got upon the flat we 
saw two Indians coming towards us, and about half a 
mile from us. They v/ere as wild as any deer. When 
they saw us, as they doubtless did, they ran ofi'" into the 
woods. The side hills and mountains v/ere covered with 
timber ; but there was no timber on the flats. We 
camped by a very pretty little stream. The flat was as 
pretty. On the opposite side of the stream some rocks 
rose perpendicularly to the height of one hundred feet. 



A TRAMP TO OALIB'ORNIA. 219 

During the night the Indians came up onto these rocks 
and rolled off stones : Ave supposed with the intent to 
scare our cattle and raise a stampede amongst them in 
the night. We penned in our cattle as well as possible 
by our wagons, and we put out a double guard. No dis- 
turbance arose ; for our cattle, though frightened, were 
in close quarters. The day following we saw a great 
many tracks of the Indians, but Ave saw none of them. 
There seemed to have been great numbers of them. The 
trail was quite well worn in places where the ground was 
hard. In sandy places, where the tracks could be more 
easily observed, they had taken some brush-wood and 
drawn over the tracks to obliterate them. We were some- 
what puzzled to know what their object could be. They 
meant something by it, that we knew, and as the Indians 
were hostile, it meant something besides a " W^elcome 
Englishmen," such as greeted the ears of our puritan 
fathers after they had come upon the eastern shore of 
our United States. 

We camped by the side of a lake, marked on some 
maps Goose Lake, on others Grove Lake. It lies in Gal- 
ifornia, except its northern extremity, which is in Oregon. 
That night we lost our trail. The Indians had intended 
that we should lose it. AVe knew there Avas something to 
pay, and that soon. 

We Avere in the Modoc country; and uoav you who 
have never seen a red m.an's trail, you Avho have never 
seen them in their native Aviids, have never -^een them upon 
their war path, nor heard their fiendish war-whoops, nor 
their diabolical yells at a scalp dance, are still Avell pre- 
pared to believe the worst that could happen to us, while 
among the Modocs. You have not forgotten the cunning 
and the duplicity which they served upon our Peace 
Commissioners, not yet two years ago. You have not 



220 WESTEUN WILD ANIMALS. 

forgotten for how long time they succeeded by treachery 
to outwit and to out fight the troops stationed upon their 
ground, nor have you forgotten the final victory of our 
men, and the sentence pronounced upon the ring-leaders 
of the Modoc tribe. 

It is said that twenty years ago they were powerful, 
and were engaged in warring against the white man. I do 
not wish to corroberate the statement — 1 should hardly 
feel justified in doing so — knowing as I do by my personal 
knowledge of them, three years previous to that time, 
that they were only glad to fight white men who passed 
through their country. We did wdsh to find our trail, and 
we did feel fully justified in making our be^t efforts for 
that purpose. 

In the morning we sent out four men to find it. Two 
of them were to go out from the lake in a north-easterly 
direction, and two were to follow the lake shore upon its 
eastern bank. The two going out from the lake came, at 
the distance of a mile, to a reef of rocks which followed 
the lake for a long distance. In some places there were 
several rods between the rocks and the lake, in others 
only a few feet, being only just room enough for a team 
to squeeze its way through. The South Pass party had 
described the lake to us ; but the Indians had fooled us 
by wearing the tracks which we were to take. When the 
men got beyond us a mile or so they found the mules' 
tracks, and came back, reporting that we were on the 
right path. They did not see any Indians while away 
from the camp. Taking their direction we started on, 
expecting to overtake the other men along the shore of 
the lake. We were about to enter the narrow pass be- 
tween the rocks and the lake when our other men came 
up. They had followed the lake until they came to a 
mass of rocks along which there was such a narrow passage 



A TBAMP TO CALIFORNIA. 221 

between them and the lake, that they went to the right of 
the rocks. There was a deep projection of the land into 
the lake, and in the center of it there was a reef of rocks 
about half a mile long. As they reached the north-east 
point of the rocks, following a short distance upon a trail, 
they supposed it to be the path leading to a stream at the 
head of the lake, which the South Pass party had told us 
we must cross. They told us that we were on the wrong 
trail. The rocks at our right ranged from fifty to two 
hundred feet in height. This reef was not a solid mass 
of rocks, but a loosely packed mass of smaller rocks, with 
deep fissures here and there. To the imaginative, or the 
timid person, or even to the practical literalist, the crev- 
ices in those rocks furnished capital hiding places for an 
enemy, and there were those in the company who w^ere 
glad that they were not obliged to go on that way. There 
were grasses and reeds growing along the edge of the 
lake. They grew eight or ten feet high above the surface 
of the water, and in some places were very thick. Some 
of the men, prompted by an irresistible curiosity to see 
what they could, and some determined to learn if there 
were Indians close by, began to scale the rocks. They 
spied them in the crevices of the rocks, and in the grasses, 
and called out that the ground was full of them. We 
formed a breast-work of our wagons, fired off our guns 
and got everything in readiness for an attack from the 
Indians, having scarcely a doubt that they would come 
upon us'. When we were ready we started to go w^here 
the last tw^o men had told us we should find the road. 
The Colonel and myself had each a good revolver, and 
feeling a measure of responsibility for the safety of the 
men, we felt that we must take the lead, and be the first 
to face the danger. As soon as the Indians saw us go 
down by another trail, for they were slyly watching, they 



222 WESTERN WILD ANIMALS. 

started quick, passing between us and the lake, to cut us 
off, as we supposed. But, as " Every road leads to the 
end of the world," and as going to California seemed like 
going to the end of the world, we were bound to take 
that road. The men whom we had sent out to find the 
road had not been far down upon the trail, therefore 
none of us knew that the Indians had a camp in ahead 
of us. When we reached the ground, their camp fires 
were still burning; but their ugly, howling dogs were the 
only living testifiers of their camp quarters. They had 
failed to break our lines, as they had doubtless supposed 
they would do when we entered the narrow pass, and see- 
ing us start towards their camp, thought we were going to 
deal out vengeance upon their squaws and papooses, and 
ran to notify them of the coming danger, and to clear the 
camp. They had secreted themselves in the rocks which 
filled in the greater portion of the point of land, and 
were hidden in the reeds and rushes growing in the lake. 
The most of them were secreted in the rocks, and yet, as 
we ascended these, we did not see them. We saw that 
the rocks ran out into the water at the point, and that 
the trail led no further than the camp. The camp fiat 
Y\^as about t\vo rods wide. The rocks were from seventy- 
five to one hLindred feet high. As we returned to follow 
up the other trail, which we now knew must be the right 
one, they came out from their hiding places like a swarm 
of bees. We knew they could sting, too, and we were 
not professional bee tamers. Two of the men were with 
me at the rear, driving up the loose cattle, when the teams 
started to go back. Several Indians came toward us 
with their hands uplifted and palms open, as if to say 
they wouldn't hurt us, they were weaponless. One of the 
men wanted me to wait and see what they would do. I 
did not know whether it was Captain Jack and his four 



A TRAMP TO CALIFORNIA. 223 

or five braves who stood there before us. I didn't know 
his name in those days ; but I suspected their duplicity, 
and preferred to go on. As I was no Peace Commis- 
sioner, and would not furnish the Captain any chance to 
shoot me in the back while making any treaty or parley- 
ing with them at their call, it was doubtless well for me 
that I did go on. As I looked off to my left I saw forty 
or fifty running in the grass, bent over to secrete them- 
selves, and evidently intending to cut us off from our 
party. I said to Mr. Cole, '' See there ! those Indians 
are trying to cut us off." He raised his gun as if to shoot 
them and they ran into a clump of trees close by. As 
they emerged from them they presented a formidable 
array of bows and arrows ready for effective vvork. I 
called to the company to wait for us. They did, and we 
saved ourselves a second time from the clutches of the 
Indians. When they found they could not catch us as 
they had hoped to, they jumped into their canoes, and 
put straight across to the head of the lake. Its eastern 
shore, along which we passed, was convex, and th.ey there- 
fore gained rapidly upon us. When we reached the point 
of the lake where they were, they allowed us to pass. It 
was a surprise which we accepted with gratitude. It was 
near night when we passed them. The rocks near the 
head of the lake ran off to the east, giving us a pass of 
about fifty rods. We followed the trail described to us, 
and at eleven o'clock we reached the stream, running into 
the lake, at a point where there was a natural ford. The 
Indians followed us up, keeping a half mile in the rear. 
Again we were surprised; for tiiey did not molest us 
during the night. It was a moon-light night, a circum- 
stance in our favor. In the morning we found that they 
had camped about three-quarters of a mile from us. AV^e 
crossed the stream and saw them no more. 



234 WESTERN WILD ANIMALS. 

The fifth day after our experience with the Modocs 
one of our lame cattle strayed from camp. "The men 
were unable to find it. At sunset, just as we went into 
camp, we heard a gun about a mile on our back track; 
but we paid no attention to it. In the morning nine men 
overtook us. They had found the lost ox. On leaving 
the Humboldt we had put up a sign-board. Upon it we 
described our party and the road we purposed to take. 
These nine men, having read our notice, had followed our 
track. They came with packed mules, and traveling so 
much faster than we could, the Indians were not apprised 
of their coming, and knew nothing of it until the com- 
pany emerged from the pass at the northern end of the 
lake. The Indians at once surrounded them. The men 
broke through, but left their mules and all their pro- 
visions. For four days they were without food, except 
what berries they had found along the way. When they 
came upon our noon camping ground, they found the lost 
ox and our fire still burning. To lose no time, and by 
all mean.s not to lose us, they had determined to drive 
the ox and hurry into camp. Night overtook them and 
they were not able to travel further. They killed the ox. 
It was that shot which we had heard. When they reached 
us in the morning we gave them, not exactly hasty pud- 
ding, but because of their necessities, a hasty meal. 
They kept with us during the remainder of the journey. 

That night we camped under Mt. Shasta. Its snow- 
topped peak had been a good guide to us for many a 
mile. Since we came in sight of Pike's Peak, we had not 
been for a whole day at a time out of sight of snow. We 
had also not been for so long a time without seeing emi- 
grant trains until after we left the Humboldt. When we 
were in those countries where we could look back upon 
our road for a long distance, the trains seemed to be so 



A T.IAMP TO CALIFORNIA. 235 

close to each other as to give the appearance of long, and 
quite compact processions. It is probably true, as some 
have estimated, that the thousands of men who traveled 
across the plains during 1852 and for several years, might 
have been counted by the scores. 

Nutter went into Yreka and we went on a part of the 
way. In the morning a party Vv^as sent out from Yreka 
to ask us to camp at a place six miles from the town. 
They wanted a chance to kill the fatted calf, in honor of 
our arrival with the first immigrant teams that had ever 
been driven into the place. On the third day from Mt. 
Shasta we drove in and were treated by white men, like 
white men. The banquet was very creditably prepared, 
and there was such a sound of revelry that night, the 7th 
of August, as we had not heard for many weary months, 
"and all went merry as a marriage bell;" — but, in a fev/ 
days there came that deep sound, which struck like a 
rising knell, and we heard it. 

A man v/ho had belonged to a party of ten came into 
Yreka. He alone, of his company, had escaped the 
murderous raids of those villainous Modocs. They were 
surrounded by them before they knew that there were 
Indians in the vicinity. Nine were at once killed. Ke 
broke through and followed our trail until he reached the 
ford. He supposed they were on his heels. His mule 
gave out, a strange thing for a tough creature like a mule 
to do, but a tougher and more mulish trick for the crea- 
ture to give out at this time of the nian's extreme, neces- 
sity. However, the mule gave out, and the man took to 
his heels. He traveled ail night and just at day-break 
he came back, having traveled in a circle, to where he 
left his mule. He found it refreshed by sleep and food : 
he mounted it and came on the trail, reaching Yreka 
without other trouble than that of hunger. 

15 



226 WESTERN WILD ANUIAW. 

On hearing this,- a party of about eighty was formed to 
go back to Goose Lake, and give the Modocs what they 
deserved, a thrashing vvith a gun-barrel for a flail. Capt. 
Nutter went as guide. A Yreka man went as Com- 
mander-in-chief. An Oregon Indian who was generally 
known as " Oregon" and who had before been out with 
such parties, also accompanied them. Unfortunately for 
my peace of mind, I was unable to go v\'ith this party, as 
I was at the time sick. 

They returned, reporting that they had killed fifty. 
They said that when they reached the lake and came 
upon the leaders, the "Capt. Jack" of that day, came out 
from the point of rocks which secreted their camp, ran 
around as if to warn his fellows, meantime shooting his 
arrows into their midst. One of the men killed him. 
AVhen they saw that their Chief was dead they were badly 
frightened and went pell-mell to find places of safety. 
Many of them hid in the rocks. Capt. Nutter found two 
squaws trying to hide themselves in some crevices vrhich 
were a little too small for them. They could not turn 
about in them, so they had crawled in feet first, and he 
said, "I could see them looking out at me, and it seemed 
sivage in me to shoot them; but I su^jpose it was right." 
He shot them. The squaws in the camp started with 
their papooses to cross the lake. Oregon caught a canoe 
and put after them, killing and drowning as many as he 
could. When Capt. Nutter asked him why he did that, 
he coolly re])iied, '^ Nits make lice." They took one 
prisoner. They told him to show them where the rest 
of the Indians v\'ere, for he professed to know where they 
v/ere going to camp. Oregon could talk with the Modocs, 
so he said to the prisoner, " If you will show us where the 
others are, you shall be released, but if you fool us you 
shall be killed." He did fool them. He took them to a 



A TEA MP TO CALIFORNIA. 227 

perfectly barren place, one destitute of Indians, or any- 
thing better. Ke said, " I am mistaken, they are over 
yonder," in such a place. The men told him he should 
have but one more chance of that kind. Again he 
deceived them, and Oregon, stepping boldly up to him, 
struck him through the heart with a knife, saying as he 
did it, " You shall never lie to me again." 

As the Yreka company first neared the Indians they- 
found a party of sixty or sixty-five that had been sur- 
rounded by them. None of them had been killed, for 
they were so thoroughly barricaded by their teams. They 
were hemmed in by rocks, and cut off from the water:. 
They were in a pitiable condition. There were two v/omen 
in the party : one of them was an elderly woman. She 
was sitting close to one of the wagons, and holding onto 
an axe with the desperation of despair. It was with 
great difficulty that they could induce her to yield her 
grasp of it and receive help at their hands. She ^v"as 
almost, if not really crazed by exposure, and fatigue, and 
fright She intended to use the axe for self-defense, and 
if worse should come to worst, to swing it right and left 
in a general fight. This company was released aixd sent 
on. Our company also found fourteen dead bodies-, 
which were mangled and terribly butchered, lying near 
the lake. If they were a part of the company to which 
the one man belonged, of whom we have already spoken, 
or if they composed another company none of the men 
could tell, but probably the latter. They buried the most 
of them. Som.e they could not bury. 

Having brought the company into Yreka, and in safety^ 
Mr. Holmes, Mr. Nutter and myself had filled our obliga- 
tions, and the men dispersed, some going in one direc- 
tion, and some in another. We had been on the road a 
few days less than five months. 



3-28 WESTERN WILD ANIMALS. 

Several of us went onto Green Horn creek, three miles, 
from Yreka, and took up a miner's claim. We worked 
about four weeks. Being inexperienced in mining, we 
found at the expiration of that time that we had made 
but thirteen dollars apiece. Torry, Hibbard and my- 
self went onto Scott's Bar. The mountain was covered 
with sugar pine. On the western slope we were obliged 
to go down around a point by going through a rocky 
channel which was just wide enough for our mules to pass 
through. Everything must be packed to be conveyed 
over this mountain. I saw several mules that had fallen 
over deep precipices. There were rocky walls of four or 
five hundred feet in height. As we reached the first set- 
tlement, we passed a prospect hole. It was four and a 
half feet across the top, arid twenty-two feet deep. 
While Mr. Hibbard was on his mule, and had just passed 
the hole, the mule began to back, and back it would. It 
fell. The horse and rider lay at the bottom of the 
hole. The prospect for them was not so fine as the retro- 
spect. When the dust had cleared away so that v/e could 
see what to do, we got them out of it. Davenport, our 
fat friend, vv^as the Samson of the occasion. Hibbard 
was wounded on the head, and fcr some little time showed 
no signs of life. He was kindly cared for, for several 
weeks, by a man who was a stranger to all of us, but who 
would at no time take any pay for his services. I h'red 
out to work in the mines for a few days, and meantime 
lived in a vacated camp. The man Vvho had previously 
camped there came and dug up some gold which he had 
secreted beneath the ground. From three hundred to 
five hundred dollars were taken out of this mine daily. 
I bought a claim, for which I was to pay the first three 
hundred dollars which the mine should produce, and 
returned to Yreka. 



A TRAMP TO CALIFORNIA. 229 

Mr. Holmes then returned with me to Scott's Bar. 
When we were upon the summit of the mountain, I looked 
to the right of me and saw a deer standing and looking 
at me. I shot, but overshot. My pride was a little 
touched ; as I had never before missed my mark when 
the Colonel and I were out together. I i cached for his 
gun, took it and killed the deer. We went to work on a 
claim, and the first day we got two hundred dollars ; but 
the gold soon run out, and there was not enough to pay 
for the claim. I was not in perfect sympathy with the 
business. We went to hunting. We could get twenty- 
two" cents per pound for our venison. We cleaned our 
guns for hunting, and the next day were ready to start out. 

A little Indian came into our camp, affirming that he 
belonged to John's tribe. He would take one of the guns 
and shoot with me at a mark. We shot them off several 
times, and he then asked to stay all night with us. We 
had but one bunk m our tent. There was a Mr. Bab- 
cock living close by us in a shanty. He invited the 
Indian to stay with him. In the morning Mr. Holmes 
was obliged to go off with a prospecting party. I started 
out to hunt. The Indian, learning v/nat I was going to 
do, wanted to take Mr. Holmes' gun and go with me. He 
consented to let him take it, and we started out together. 
We expected to find our deer on the second rise of ground 
as we ascended the mountain. Having reached this rise 
of ground, there was on one side of us a ravine, or gulch. 
V/e could not look onto the side of it nearest us ; but we 
could look across upon the other side. We therefore decided 
that I should go across and should shoot the game on his 
side of the gulch, and he should shoot that on my side. 
He was to remain where he was until I should reach the 
other side. The underbrush grew eight or ten feet high. 
I went over as agreed, and stopped first to see where the 



230 WESTERN WILD ANIMALS. 

Indian was. I could not see him, and at once suspected 
he had run away with the gun. I heard something behind 
me, and turned just in time to see him leveling his gun to 
fire at me. Not such a friendly Indian, after all. 'Twas 
a new phase in the rough experiences of a woodsman. 
Quick as a flash he dropped his gun when he saw me 
looking at him. I think if he had had 'he courage thus 
to dispose of himself, he would have thrown himself over 
into the ravine, and never have looked at me again. I 
called him up and told him, as if I meant it, clat-a-v/a, 
or go ahead. He did until we reached the top of the 
mountain, when we came upon several deer, and there he 
killed a very large buck. We took it to camp and dressed 
it, and I gave him a part of it and told him to go home- 
But he wanted to stay all night with us. He comimenced 
to make a spear head of the deer's horn, alleging that he 
was going to spear salmon trout. We left the camp for a 
little time, and could scarcely have been out of sight 
when he stole our guns, powder, and powder horns, our 
lead and caps. Our ball moulds were in a hollow log, 
and he had found and taken them too. \'^'e very soon 
learned that he belonged to the Klamath tribe. They 
were hostile. The Mr. Davis who told us offered to go 
with us to find our rifles. The Kiamaths were fifteen 
miles away. We learned on reaching them that he had 
not been seen for about ten days. Soon after this the 
Chief of the John's tribe went for us and found the 
Indian who had stolen our rifles ; but he refused to give 
them up. Mr. Davis sent word to the Kiamaths, if they 
did not return the rifles he would take men enough with 
him and they would exterminate their tribe. He had 
previously fought them, and as they stood in fear of him 
they gave over the rifles. The Chief took forty-five dol- 
lars for his trouble. 



A TEAMP TO CALIl^OENIA. -231 

A few days after this Mr. Tiittle, from Massachusettr, 
wanted me to go hunting with him. It was near night. 
We saw no deer, but saw a great many signs of bears. We 
followed a stream that flowed past our camp, and that 
started from the mountain where I had before hunted. 
There was thick brush close to the stream. The first hill 
was very steep and bore evident marks of ancient vol- 
canic action. We could easily follow a bear's track 
through the crumbled stones. As we neared some thick 
brush on our return to camp, Mr. Tuttle was a few rods 
in advance of me. He had seen grizzly bears, and turned 
to me saying that he should never fire at a grizzly bear, 
if he should see one. I said I would fire. Possibly a 
spirit of combativeness and a little of braggadocio spirit 
was the prompter of this remark, as I felt safe at the time 
to make the assertion, knowing as I did that I had no 
grizzly bear to shoot, and that probably Mr. Tuttle would 
not be there to see me run from it, should I ever meet 
one. But no sooner had I made the bold assertion than 
we heard a crackling noise in the brush, followed by a 
stranger noise, and in an instant we saw a huge grizzly 
bear coming up from the other side of the creek, with a 
cub at her side. wShe ran up a few rods above the brush, 
then stopped. The cub stopped too. I shot. What 
else could I do } My honor was at stake, whether my 
life was or not ; the momentary surprise and (shall I say 
it .') humiliation forced me to the shot. As the ball struck 
the bear she took her paw and struck the cub, by the act 
throwing it down the mountain. The old bear ran 
towards the brush, then stopped to look at us. Tuttle 
was nearer the bear than I v/as and he ran. I stopped 
him — told him to "wait and see a big fight; I v.-as ready 
for it." Oh ! what a brave boy I was with my big plum 
pudding; but, like the little one, I wanted some one to 



232 WESTERN WILD ANIMALS. 

see me, else there was no fun in it and I imagine there 
would have been only a one-sided fight. 

I do not mean to say that were I alone in the woods I 
would necessarily be a covrard ; but that many times it 
has been true in my case, as I also believe it has been in 
yours, that when I have been in positions of danger 
if there w^ere those with me who were frightened^ 
especially if frightened beyond self-control, my courage 
has risen, and always in proportion to the emergency. 
The practical use of a little courage gives more to the 
one who is actuated by it, and it keeps those from falling 
who are weakened by their fears. In the present case it 
may be that the best thing I could do was to fire at the 
bear; possibly it was not. But having been caught in a 
trap of my own setting, I could do no better than the 
most cunning animals that I had ever entrapped, I could 
but make the best possible use of my powers for self- 
protection as circumstances at that late hour might 
dictate. 

I knew that a v/ounded grizzly bear was a doubly for- 
midable antagonist. Tuttle said she would kill us. My 
gun was ready. She stood a moment, then she and her 
cub ran up the opposite hill. Tuttle fired at her, but did 
not hit her. It was useless for me to fire at her in her 
position at the time. She had gone up onto the hill and 
on about half a mile. It soon seemed as though she had 
rolled down the hill. She was bleeding profusely. I saw 
her going into the creek, where she was very soon out of 
sight. I thought I would get in ahead of her. In a 
moment she came cut square against me, and about 
tv.-elve rods from me. Again she struck her cub and 
drove it off sixty rods upon a foot hill. She then 
returned — growling, and snarling, and breaking the 
whistle wood as sh'^^ came. Tuttle started to run, saying 



A TRAMP TO CALIFORNIA. 233 

that she would call all the bears in the neighborhood. 
Once more I stopped him and told him to stand by and 
see the biggest fight he had ever seen. She returned to 
the spot where I had shot her before, and we went through 
the same maneuvres. As she stood looking at me I shot 
at her, but did not hit her. She walked off and acted as 
though she were dead. I then started to kill her cub, 
but had only started when the old bear stood up on her 
hind legs, and began pacing towards me, growling at 
every step, I fired again, and again I missed her. She 
went up the creek a little ways, and lay down by the side 
of a large balsam. I went up on the side hill to shoot 
her in <the head. Just as I was ready to fire, I heard a 
noise up the hill, and on turning to learn the cause of it, 
I saw a bear coming, jumping and snorting as it came. 
It ran within six rods of me. That was too much for me. 
I had not bargained for that, neither had I been trying 
to shoot all the bears in the neighborhood into our pres- 
ence, but rather to shoot those already there out of the 
ability to touch us. We both started for an oak tree, 
which we could climb and thought the bears could nor, 
and, indeed, we supposed that a grizzly bear would never 
attempt to climb a tree. We were not fully posted in 
bearisms. The third bear did not notice us. It had 
come at the call of the old and the young one to the help 
of the latter. The mother bear had thrown her cub down, 
doubtless, with the intent for it to call for help, and thus 
released from the care of it she might give us a little 
attention by way of one of her affectionate bear squeezes. 
The cub was pacified, and as the third one had, probably, 
not seen us at all, they went off in peace, and gave us a 
good chance to kill the wounded bear and make good our 
own escape. I had both times shot the bear through the 
lungs; still it lived nearly an hour. Had it been a deer, 



234 WESTERN WILD ANIMALS. 

and thus shot, it would not have lived long enough to run 
twenty rods. I'he day following, five of us took it to 
camp. 

Poor health made it necessary for me to return home, 
and to take the easier route. Passing through the Golden 
Gate, I went by way of Panama, Aspinwall, Jamaica, and 
New York to my home in Wisconsin. 



HU^T1^0 TRIP^. 235 



VII. 



HUN i L\G TRIPS IN MINNESOTA AND NORTH 
WESTERN WISCONSIN. 



A TRIP IN NORTH-WESTERN WISCONSIN. 

Mr. L. B. Green and myself started out from Madison, 
Wisconsin, — to which place we had gone by rail, — travel- 
ing on foot ; for we were in search of government lands. 
The second day out we crossed the Wisconsin river. We 
went through Sauk City, past Devil's Lake, through 
Baraboo and on to V\^ebster's prairie, where we stopped 
for the night. I was taken sick and was obliged to 
remain there several days. Mr. Putnam and his son-in- 
law, at whose house we had stayed, took their team and 
went on with us. I was not able to get in and out of the 
wagon alone, and had I not been used to living a good 
share of the time out of doors, and at disadvantageous 
rates, it would not have been safe for me to start as I did. 

During the day it commenced to rain very hard, and 
we asked an Irishman whom we chanced to meet, how far 
it was to the Ohio House. He thought a moment and 
said: "J^st half a mile from v/here you now stand." But 
we drove five or six miles and having found no Ohio 
House, we asked another Irishman whom we met how far 
we were from it. He thought a moment too, — they seem 
to be very thoughtful creatures, these Irishmen, — then told 
us, "Just seven miles from where you now stand." On 
we went, distrusting strangers and having within ourselves 



236 WESTER!^ WILD ANIMALS. 

little ground of confidence that we should ever see the 
house in question. We rode a half mile and found it. 
There we stopped for the night. The next night we 
carnped out, and keeping my feet almost in the fire I 
burned out a good share of my rheumatism. The fol- 
lowing night we put up at the Globe House, in Sparta. 
The house was not finished, but there were a good many 
guests there. In the night a cry of " Fire ! " brought 
every man to his feet at the same moment. The fire 
proved to be in an adjacent building and not our own, 
as we at first supposed, and the only loss that the 
travelers sustained was the common loss of boot-straps, 
which v.-ere found in the morning thickly strevvn upon the 
floors. 

After we had passed the Black River Falls, we stopped 
at night at a private house, where we found that we were 
needed to help take care of a stranger who had lost an 
arm by the accidental discharge of his gun. Being near 
the house, he crept in and was cared for there. The 
wolves had tracked the blood on his way to the house, 
and the man would doubtless have been devoured by 
them, had not the inmates of the house happened to hear 
him just in time to save him. 

The country through which we traveled was poor : the 
soil was light and sandy, and the timber very scarce. 
We went on and into a poorer country than this. I 
thought it could be put to one good use, namely ; to 
colonize snakes. Snakes were already so abundant there, 
that I believed the climate and the soil both well adapted 
to their perfect development. We saw some massasaugers 
while there, and some bull snakes — large, spotted ones. 
One was six feet long and another was still longer. A 
few miles northwes.t of this immediate section we came 
into a good country again. When we were about ten 



HUNTING TRJPF. 387 

miles beyond IMenomonee we passed the mail carrier. 
His horses were hitched to a tree, and he was lying on 
rhe ground asleep. At first we thought we would hide 
the mail bags and then wake him. We did PxOt do it ; for 
policy demanded that we keep on the good side of Uncle 
Sam, if we expected him to give us all a farm, where sand 
and snakes were not so thoroughly intermixed as to make 
poor soil for good seed, such as we intended to sow. 

When we had made our camp for the night, I started 
out in search of deer. Just at dusk I saw, about twenty 
rods from me, something black, quite bear-like in its 
appearance. I fired at it and it fell. I loaded my gun 
and started towards it. As I neared it, the animal raised 
up and commenced biting a tree. I intended to shoot it 
through the head; but as I fired the bear dropped its 
head, and the ball went into the tree. My next shot 
killed it. Just then I heard something in a little tree 
close by me. I looked up and saw three tiny cubs. I 
called to the men to bring the axe ; for I wanted to get 
them alive. Having heard me shoot three times in so 
quick succession, and then yell so loud, they thought 
some Indians were after me, and before coming to answer 
to my call, they made some preparations for their own 
safety. On learning v/hat I wanted, one cut the tree 
down, vrhile two of us stood ready to catch the little fel- 
lows as they would fall. Putnam's son cai;ght one and I 
caught two. His bear began to bite him and he called 
for help. One of the men took one of mine, so that I 
could take Van Estian's, but by some mismanagement it 
got away. Another one was soon lost, but mine I kex>t 
until it became quite attached to me, so much so that it 
would howl as soon as I was out of its sight. I sold my 
little bear on board a boat, sliortly before I returned to 
my home. 



288 WESTEIIN WILD ANIMALS. 

IN THE CHIPPEWA REGIONS IN WISCONSIN. 

A few months after my trip into the Chippewa regions 
in 1856, William Lee and my son Jonathan accompanied 
me into the woods about ]^.Ieno:rionee, to hunt. I bar- 
gained with a company in Menomonee to take all the 
venison I could furnish up to the hrst of January. 

As we started out one day for a hunt, we came to a 
place where twelve or fifteen elk had just been. We fol- 
lowed them up all day, but without success, and at night 
when we might have come within shot of some, a stream, 
the Red Cedar river, lay betv*-een us and vre could not 
cross it. AVe were probably fifteen niiles from camp : we, 
therefore, temporized a camp for the night, and in the 
morning retraced our steps, hunting as we went. When 
we came to the place where Jonathan and I had left the 
rest of tlie party the day before, v/e heard a man calling 
as if in great trouble. We went on until we saw one of 
our men down on a flat, running as fast as possible. We 
tried to get his attention ; but he could not hear us for 
his own noise. When we did get to him, we learned that 
he could not tell where he had hitched his horses and he 
was frightened. He had shot a deer and could not find 
that eiLhcr. His trouble \\ as too great to keep it all to 
himself. After finding them we returned to camp, tired 
and hungry, and somewhat out of humor, because of our 
poor luck on our first elk hunt. We traveled through a 
rough, hilly, and heavily timbered country, and with com- 
paratively poor success until after the first fall of snow, 
when I made good hunts through the season. 

Deer hunts would become so monotonous and devoid 
of interest to the reader, if I were to attempt to relate a 
half of them, that I shall only speak of a certain fevv- 
cases, letting the rjst pass for just as good, but not, there- 



HUNTING TRIPS. 239 

fore, necessary to be described. Once when I had gone 
out with an insufficient supply of balls, I came very close 
to a large buck and shot it. He ran off a ways and then 
fell down, and, thinking to save my balls, I was going to 
hit him in the head with my hatchet to kill him. I knev/ 
he was badly wounded. When I was about six feet from 
him, he jumped up as if ready for a fi^^it. His hair was 
all set forward, his tail stood erect, and the position of 
his head betokened his intentions. As I thought him 
ready to jump at me I jumped back ; but in doing it hit 
my heels against a stick, which was partially concealed 
by the snow, and it was my turn to lie down. So down 
I went. I threw up my hands, intending to catch him 
by the horns if he persisted in displaying the aggressive. 
There was some nobility about the deer, as I have always 
claimed for the family, he did not propose to kick a man 
when he was down ; but he stood there, meantime look- 
ing down at me, and I lay there lo:,k::x.:; up at him for 
several minutes. My eyes became his master, and after 
a little while I succeeded in crawling out of his reach ; 
when I decided that I had balls enough, and I shot him 
dead. 

Jonathan and one of the men cne day found a bear 
in a hollow tree, and • as it stuck its head out of the hole 
they shot it. It brought nearly thirty dollars. Later in 
the season some exceedingly severe storms made it so 
tedious to be out of doors that we went home. This 
winter was the hardest on deer of any I have ever known. 
White men and Indians slaughtered them in great num- 
bers. They would put on snow-shoes, and taking a 
hatchet, but no gun, would strike them down. The snow 
was crusted, and would bear a man's weight, but the deer, 
falling through, would be so crippled in their traveling 
that they were easily caught. One man told me that he 



240 WESTERN WILD ANIMAL^''. 

killed ten in one day, and that in some places the Indians 
had taken them by hundreds. They were very scarce 
the next year. 

IN THE V/OODS IN NOR'l H-WESTERN WISCONSIN. 

D. D. Streeter, of Bemardstown, Massachusetts, went 
with me into several counties in the north-western part 
of Wisconsin to hunt deer. We went in the fall, hgping 
to find the deer in good condition and in abundance. We 
went onto. Elk Creek, where I had previously hunted ; 
but the deer were scarce, and the forests vv'ere fast filling 
up with a growth of underbrush. W^e therefore went on 
thirty-five miles further, to the Red Cedar river. Mr. 
Putnam was again with me. We pitched our tent and set 
our traps, ready for work and a good time generally. 
While Putnam and I were setting traps, crack, crack, 
went the gun at the camp, where we had left Streeter to 
settle our housekeeping arrangements. When we returned 
we found his booty was a big pile of prairie chickens and 
partridges, enough to last a good sized family for a week. 
Streeter set a trap for a deer on one of their trails close 
by the river, and in the morning we found it baited with 
a beaver. This was altogether new work for him, and he 
was delighted with his success. I went eight miles from 
camp onto Pine creek and trapped. My best day's work 
there was the catching of one otter, one mink, three 
beavers, and eight muskrats. There Mr, Putnam tried 
the old, but fatal plan of cutting down the dam to catch 
the beavers. He did let them out ; but he caught only 
two from the four or five dams which he cut into. We 
stayed as long as we had intended to, and were well sat- 
isfied with the trip. 



HUNTING TBIPS. 241 

ABOUT EAU CLAIRE. 

In the fall of 185 8 Wm. H. Landon, Jonathan Cart- 
wright and myself went to Eau Claire and the surround- 
ing vicinity. We found the deer still very scarce, owing 
to the severity of the season two winters before. We 
therefore decided to make trapping our main business. 

Having trapped for a time on Gilbert creek, we went 
onto Wilson creek. There I found a beaver dam which 
had on it the most new work of any dam I've ever seen. 
I went onto a hill to look down upon it, and it seemed as 
though the little fellows had chopped down a forest for 
the fun of seeing the trees fall. They lay in every direc- 
tion, and being in keeping with the description of beaver 
cuttings already given, they would have stocked the 
cabinets of the country with the most valuable specimens 
of the sort. The dam measured six feet in height ; the 
pond was therefore large, and there were a number of 
canals running into it. In my ignorance of the shyness, 
and, shall I say exclusiveness, or fastidiousness of the 
strange creatures, I frightened them away, and I failed to 
catch any, though I may except just the foot of one of 
them, for that I did catch. What is theirs belongs to 
them, and I was so ignorant of their habits that I tres- 
passed upon their homes more than a skillful beaver 
hunter would dare to do. But I learned wisdom by my 
failures, and after a time I began to know and to catch 
them better. 

We caught quite a number of otters, beavers, coons, 
and mink, while our camp was on Gilbert creek. One 
night we caught three otters and two mink. We were 
eight miles from Menomonee creek, and we had traps set 
sixteen miles south, on the Ogalle river. One day as I 
was going down the river I saw a coon's track, and knew 



243 WESTERN WILD ANIMALS. 

that it was a new-made track. There was a sharp bend 
in the stream, and the water was at this point frozen 
about half way to the center. The water had fallen, the 
coon had gone into the stream, and sat near the bank 
with its head out of the water, but underneath the ice. 
I stepped onto the ice to get a good aim at my coon ; but 
as I flung the stick from the edge of the ice, the ice broke, 
and I went head first into the cold stream. 

One morning in December, after a snow storm, we 
thought we would go out and have some sport with some 
wild-cats. Two and a half miles from us there was a 
family of them hidden in some rocks. When about half 
way there I saw the tracks of seven elk, and I told the 
men I would follow them up, and they might go on. The 
elk had gone towards a mountain, and as I neared its top 
I saw one standing on a knoll not far from me, and as I 
fired my gun, another one nearer to me jumped up. I 
had not seen it ; but I found that the bail had hit the 
mane, and having cut off quite a lock had glanced off, 
and the animal went on with the others unhurt. I tried 
to get in ahead of them, followed them up several miles, 
and then I saw one behind a fallen tree top. As I fired, 
it ran off. I had hit it, but too far back to kill it at once. 
I followed it up, and every few minutes would see where 
it had lain down. I traveled as fast as I could, and after 
a time, when I had reached a hill on the north branch of 
the Ogalle river, I saw elk again. I slid down the hill on 
my back to avoid attracting attention ; but they were too 
much for me, and finding that I could not get a shot at 
them, I would shoot and I did shoot off my gun, and felt 
satisfied that I had had my own way about one thing. 

The sun was then not more than an hour high and I 
was eighteen or twenty miles from camp, out in the cold 
traveling over deep snow with no hatchet or any matches, 



HUNTING TJRIPS. 243 

and in a strange country. I took my back track and fol- 
lowed it without trouble so long as daylight lasted. Just 
as that disappeared five deer started up near me, and one 
large buck was foolish enough to stand still and look at 
me : foolish, for I killed him. There was a full moon, 
but the clouds shut back a good share of the light. I had 
shot my last ball. There was no time for me to stop to 
think ; but I did think as I tramped along. I wanted to 
strike a.n old road that had been traveled some years 
before. I was again left to do the next best thing, to 
keep upon my back track, if possible. After a time I 
did strike the road and followed it until I came to the 
mountain upon which I knew we had made our camp. I 
must turn from the road to strike it. This was a nice 
point to accomplish, especially in the dark. I, knew that 
there were some very steep, rocky places, and knew that 
I must avoid them. A little to the east of our camp there 
was a windfall. I happened to get into it, and knew that 
I was not far from camp, but sweet as was that conso- 
lation, that windfall did not strike me' in every respect 
with pleasure. I've heard of windfalls, and that they_ 
have been known to do good things for one ; (this one did 
for me ;) that they have been known to set people right 
up in the world. This one set me up in the world a good 
many times, for there was no way for me to get through 
it, but to get over a good share of it, for many of the 
fallen trees I could neither get around nor under. When 
I thought I must be close to the camp I called to the men 
and they brought out a light and I went in. 

In the morning I went with Jonathan to get my game. 
Having found the deer and having hung it up to keep it 
from molestation, we went on to get my wounded elk. 
We found that a lynx had followed my track for several 
miles after I had left the deer the night before. As we 



244 WESTERN WILD ANIMALS. 

neared the spot where I shot the elk I found where it had 
dragged its feet along, unable to keep them ui> any longer. 
When I saw it I told Jonathan to shoot it. I felt a little 
roguish just then. I knew it was dead ; but he did as I 
told him : he shot the dead creature and accepted the 
joke with good grace. We hunted elk the rest of the 
day, and at night camped out, and on the next day on 
our return to camp found nothing but one marten. 

The day that Mr. Landon and Jonathan Cartwright 
started on their wild-cat chase they set some traps on the 
rocks which we called Wild-cat Rocks. The cave in 
these rocks, in which they were hidden, is three and a 
half feet high, five feet wide, and runs back straight for 
ten feet ; then turning to the right at right angles there's 
a passagQ fifteen feet long, two and a half feet high and 
three wide ; then it turns to the left and I do not know 
its dimensions. 'Twas a grand, good place for the fero- 
cious felines. We had seen a very large cat there and 
had set a dog upon it ; the dog was badly whipped. One 
of the traps they set for the cats, and had fastened to it 
a dry pole about fourteen feet long. A cat had carried 
off the trap and the pole, and had gone into the cave. 
Mr. Landon made a torch of some white birch bark, and 
taking his rifle entered the cave. At the second bend he 
could see the cat ; he wounded it, and it jumped at him, 
and would have clinched him, but for the pole which 
caught in some rocks. He used his gun to ward it off, 
and he said that he backed out of the cave to the best 
possible advantage and as fast as he could. I believe the 
man told the truth. He succeeded in getting the cat out 
too, by pulling upon the pole whenever he could get a 
chance. After drawing it out he killed it. It was the 
largest wild-cat I have ever seen. 

Soon after that, I left the men and went on twenty-two 



HUNTING TRIPS. 245 

miles and trapped on Mud creek, and caught several 
mink, foxes, wolves and coons. One day I caught seven 
coons. The men left the camp, and Jojiathan Cartwright 
and Landon went onto Elk creek, thirty miles from 
our Gilbert creek camp. One night while trapping there 
he caught four otters, out of the five that came up the 
creek, and also two beavers. Two of his traps were car- 
ried off that night. Mr. Landon went onto Bloomer 
prairie after foxes. The last of February Mr. Putnam 
went with me onto O'Neal's creek. There we found fur 
very plenty. When the ice began to melt in the spring, 
by a series of severe exposures I became sick. Mr. Put- 
nam went out to the settlement nearest us, to get pro- 
visions. He was to send them to me by Mr. Landon. 
The wind i:hanged and " came from out the bad weather 
corner;" it snowed until one could scarcely see any- 
thing. Night closed over me; but no one came to my 
relief. My head ached, my bones ached, I was hot, was 
cold, and I was alone and lonesome. The night was a 
long and dreary one to me. When the stqrm ceased the 
snow lay twenty inches deep on the level. Early in the 
morning Mr. Landon reached me. In a few days I was 
decidedly better; but after staying two or three weeks 
and I was unable to hunt, I returned to my home. All 
things considered, we had a very fine time trapping and 
hunting. We caught fifty otters, forty beavers, one elk, 
one wolf, ten deer, eighteen martens, two fishers, thirteen 
wild-cats, ten foxes, three hundred muskrats, one hund- 
red coons, and one hundred mink. We caught two black 
coons. I have never seen any others like them. My 
partners were determined to make me like coon meat — 
steak, or roast, or fry, or in any shape they could cook it. 
They seasoned all of my food with the oil, but as I could 
not learn to like it, they almost starved me and I was 
therefore glad to get away from them. 



246 . WESTERN WILD ANIMALS. 

IN EAU CLAIRE AND DALLAS COUNTIES. 

After remaining at home for a while, I returned with 
Streeter and Putnam to our hunting grounds. We first 
went about sixty miles up the Chippewa river, then went 
to Vanville, about twenty miles from Elk creek. There 
we killed some deer. The snow was about two feet deep, 
and there was a good crust apon it. I thought I would 
go out and catch a deer and bring it in alive. I therefore 
equipped myself with ropes and strings, put on some 
snow shoes, and on finding some deer I followed one 
several miles. She could not endure it any longer, and 
turned about for a fight. She began to stamp down the 
snow to get a good standing place, and assuming the 
position of one previously described, she jumped at me. 
This time the deer kicked me on the side of m^ head, and 
I tumbled over, head down in the snow, and heels up and 
out of it. She ran on, and left me to help myself out of 
my trouble. Those of you who have ever worn a pair 
of snow shoes know how difficult it would be to get one's 
self back info standing position, with the feet well 
planted squarely underneath you, if you should chance 
to find yourself turned topsy-turvy, as I found myself 
just then. I did not mean to be joked and fooled in that 
way, and seizing all the determination I could scare up, I 
loosened my snow shoes and started after my deer 
creature. She had gone a few rods, and had another 
spot of ground already stamped down, and was ready to 
jump at me again. This time I escaped the fury of her 
foot, and 1 caught one of the hind legs and held it. She 
soon gave up, and fastening my ropes to her I drew her 
into camp. The next day I caught four more, and got 
them into camp alive. We built a pen for them of tam- 
arack trees, and kept them through the winter. 



HUNTING TRIPS. 247 

In March we went into Dallas county. We stopped at 
a logging camp, and waited for the ice to break up. The 
boss of the camp was a Frenchman, who claimed to be 
very expert in managing a canoe. He wanted to show 
us how well he could handle one. He took mine and 
started out ; but it was so much lighter than any he was 
accustomed to, that the first stroke he made with the set- 
ting pole slipped the boat out from under him, and sent 
him under the water. It was a very cold morning, and 
when he came up out of the water he took a bee line for 
the camp. He was well cheered by the spectators of the 
successful launch. 

We went about five miles up the stream, and found 
deer in the greatest numbers I have ever seen them 
anywhere. It was here that Streeter and I watched to 
see how near a deer would come to us, as described 
under "deer hunting." We caught a good many animals, 
and when we had thinned out some of them in this 
locality, we started homewards. Twelve miles down the 
river we found our way blocked by logs. The water 
was high and swift. Some trees were turned over into 
the river, and many times it was difficult for us to find a 
way through the obstructions. In one place where some 
logs were bumping away at a fearful rate against a fallen 
tree, Streeter's boat, which was heavier than mine, found 
its way. He could not steer clear of them, and he came 
near to being upset. We trapped all along on our way 
home. This trip was the fourth one I had made in this 
section of the country with Mr. Putnam, the second with 
Mr. Streeter. 

May we three meet again upon some fighting pjround,. 
where as before we shall be pitted, not against each other, 
but against the bears and the deer. 



248 WESTERN WILD ANIMALS. 

TRAPPING IN MINNESOTA. 

In the fall of 1869' one of my neighbors, a Mr. Perry 
Sweet, went with me to trap in Minnesota. We drove a 
team, carried a tent and what was necessary for a good 
camping outfit. After crossing the Mississippi we camped 
near Postville. There we fell in company with a Mr. 
Fisher, who was also going to Minnesota. When we 
came to the Turkey river we found the water very high : 
the bridges were gone, and it was with some difficulty 
that we crossed the stream. Paul Cartwright, my son, 
who was then living a short distance beyond this river, 
went on with us, and a Mr. Ackley being added to the 
company, filled our ranks. We had a very hard time in 
traveling through this set:tion of the country, because of 
some severe storms. Some nights we could not camp 
out, but were obliged to seek refuge, like -fugitives in the 
days of underground railroads, in some barn or shed. 
Good roads were washed out ; the low land was covered 
with water; mud was deep and bridges were gone; but 
had you tried to stop us, you would have found that we 
were gone too. We were living in high hopes of better 
days to come. 

We stayed two nights at Clear Lake, and there the 
boys caught some ducks and geese, all that two men could 
carry. On our way to Coon Grove we had a sorry ex- 
perience in crossing sloughs. 

To any who have not enjoyed the luxury of being 
sloughed, it may be well to say that the low, wet land 
through which sluggish streams pass are called sloughs. 
These vary in v/idth from a few to many rods. Many of 
them are covered with a thick sod that will bear up a 
team ; others have a sod or reed bottom that will also 
bear up a load ; but the mud sloughs, with neither top 



HUJ^TING TRIPS. 249 

nor bottom protection, which must be crossed, furnish 
sufficient variation from the monotony of prairie travel. 
You force your horses to plunge into uncertain depths, 
and are fortunate if their feet are not fastened in the 
deep, unctious mud. If they are sloughed, your only 
remedy is to plunge in yourself, and keep their heads 
above water while you get them loose from the wagon. 
After they are safe, your remedy is with your heavy rope, 
carried for the purpose, to join horses and wagon together, 
giving the horses the benefit of solid land to stand on 
while they haul the wagon out. After the load has been 
carried out on your shoulders, unless the ladies prefer 
wading, diey must be transported by the same method. 
By the time all this is accomplished, you have accumulated 
on your person and clothes an abundance of the thickest 
and richest soil imaginable, in addition to the inex- 
pressible sensations of having been sloughed. 

Coon Grove is situated upon a beautiful elevation, and 
it is surrounded by the best of muskrat marshes. At 
Jackson we procured our supplies for the remainder of 
the journey. We camped a few nights after leaving Jack- 
son by a beautiful little lake, near which there were other 
smaller lakes. Whoever has lived in Wisconsin or Min- 
nesota, though he has traveled but comparatively little, 
-knows how beautiful the tiny clear lakes are ; and those 
who will but look upon a good sized map will see there 
are a great many of them, and he may reasonably expect 
that there are many o*:hers which are not marked there. 
These states are thickly sprinkled over, like spice on a 
savory dish, with the tiny beauties. On this lake, by 
which we camped, we began our wcrk of destruction. It 
was fun for us, but death to the rats : it made lively times 
for us, and for them wdiile they lived. Paul and Ackley 
caught one hundred and thirty in one night. Whenever 



250 WESTERN WILD ANIMALS. 

they began to get scarce, Fisher and myself looked up 
new trapping grounds. 

Sweet was "chief cook and bottle washer," and we 
supposed we should have a sweet time eating the good 
things he would make for us. In honor of his high expec- 
tations, 'twas probably that, he christened the bread, 
biscuit, or food, or what shall I call it ? with the name 
" marble cake." But, alas ! 

"The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men 
Gang aft a-gley." 

Thougli we will not do our friend the injustice to suspect 
him of roguery — for he had himself to eat of the same 
that he provided for the rest of us — we do think, if not 
very wise in choosing the proportions of his bread ingre- 
dients'he could not have done but one thing wiser in the 
selection of the name for the — . Marble is hard, and so 
were the biscuits ; marble is heavy, and so were they ; 
marble is varied in its colorings, and so were they ; 
streaked, and they were too. Marble is not found in the 
building and furnishing materials of every man's house ; 
neither is the like of those biscuit upon their tables. 
Biscuit ? Yes, that's the name of those things. He 
wasn't used to such, neither did he get used to the eating 
of them while he was the baker. He was sharing the 
fate of many a cook, losing the relish for his food, simply 
because he made it himself. 

Mr. Fisher is a tall, heavy, energetic man, and he told 
the boys that he was sorry he could not have some man 
accompany him who could stand it to travel with him, 
that Cartwright was too old. One time on starting out 
we took a dozen of those biscuit along with us, and some 
salt, not that we might be able to keep them, but to salt 
what game we should cook, while away from the rest of 
the party. We started in a northwesterly direction, in- 



HUNTING TRIPS. 251 

tending to strike Pipe Stone county, and if necessary to 
go on to Dakota. Mr. Fisher started out at a fearful rate, 
and I told him he might go on ; for I could not travel so 
fast ; but he stayed with me. At noon we came to a 
lake, where he wanted to stop and eat his dinner. I 
could eat all I wanted while traveling at my slow rate ; 
he was to stop, as he would' doubtless overtake me. We 
did not find any place at night where we dared to start a 
fire, lest we should set the whole prairie on fire. The 
next day I killed an elk, and I said to Fisher that we 
must go back to our home camp, and get the team to 
help us draw in the elk. He knew that he could not 
stand it to travel any further ; but I thought he could ; 
for he could, travel a great deal further than I could, and 
I knew that 1 was able to go back to camp. I proposed 
that we take a shorter course, striking at once straight for 
the camp, and said that if we could reach the road before 
dark, I knew that I could shorten our distance by several 
miles. But he could not reach it. We had a sorry time 
of it traveling that night. Fisher knew I was lost, that 
it was not safe to follow my lead, that he was not able to 
keep up any longer, and he was determined to lie down 
upon the wet ground, though he could have no fire, and 
no protection. I used a little of a father's dictatorial 
style of argument upon him, as I thought it would become 
my age, and when we had reached camp he heard the 
first of the story, that it took so long to tell, about his 
having company equal to himself in traveling abilities. 

The next morning it fell to my lot to go with one of 
the men after the elk. Mr. Fisher was not able to be up. 
We were gone two nights and fared rather hard in the 
time. Tlie animal weighed about five hundred pounds. 
We moved our camp eight miles to the south of us and 
found good trapping grounds. We saw two large droves 



352 WESTERN WILD ANIMALS. 

of elk : in one we counted seventy-three, in the other one 
hundred. The prairie had been burned over, and there 
being no trees to hide us from them, we could not ap- 
proach within fire of them. We were in Nobles county, 
Minnesota. We were there successful in our trapping. 
We caught fourteen badgers, two otters, several beavers, 
sixteen skunks, eighteen foxes, twenty mink and twenty- 
seven hundred muskrats. 

We found twelve families in Nobles county who spent 
the most of the time in trapping, but who were not very 
successful because they used so little skill. Rats were 
the principal game, and the skins were legal tender. 
While we were there a Sabbath-school was organized, 
and every man would give a certain number of rat skins 
towards procuring a library. If they bought law books 
with their money, I think the petitions therein contained 
must have been thoroughly rat-ified ; or had aiiy of the 
buyers objected to such a selection, their objections were 
sufficiently ratified to secure a change. There we learned 
of a woman who was a practical hunter and trapper, and 
who was enviably successful. 

I left my boat, traps, and tent, and we returned to our 
homes in December. It was cold and the return was 
tedious. Soon after reaching home Paul and I went 
back to Minnesota to trap again. We had severe storms 
to face : some of them were so severe as to prevent our 
traveling for a time. The snow was deep, and when we 
were beyond any habitations, and had our heavy packs 
upon our backs, we found the traveling very tedious. 
For the first time in my life, I gave out, and I gave my 
pack over to Paul. The next day, however, found me 
better, and ready for work. On our firpt day at trapping 
we killed one hundred and twenty-two rats, and twice 
that day we killed five at a shot. We caught four hund- 



HUNTING TRIP8. 253 

red in one slough, which was not a very large one. We 
thinned quite a number of sloughs of their rats, and after 
a very successful trip of a few weeks, for one of the sort, 
we left the grounds and returned to our homes. 

IN THE COTTONWOOD COUNTRY. 

In February, 1869, accompanied by Mr. Isaac Heritage 
and Mr. Darius Reed, I went into Minnesota to hunt 
along the Cottonwood river. After leaving Garden City, 
having hired some one to take us into the woods, we were 
overtaken by a storm and were obliged to stop on our 
way. The following day being clear, but cold, we re- 
sumed our journey, and, when in another day we neared 
Mound creek, our tribulations increased upon us in full 
measure. There came up very suddenly a violent wind 
storm which swept everything before it. It capsized our 
load, and our driver being thrown overboard, the horses 
started off as if to have things their own way ; but, as 
men are apt to do when lost, they circled to the left, and 
soon came back. There was a light crust on the snow : 
the wind took it up and the loose snow from underneath 
it and at times almost blackened the air. The storm was, 
however, a very severe "white storm," such as raged 
with destructive fury in the winter of '72-3 in Minnesota 
and other parts of the West, the accounts of which were 
read by thousands of people, as many miles away. Our 
first hunting quarters were in a dug-out, such a place as 
many pioneers have not only heard of, but in which they 
have also lived. It was a ten-by-ten feet room, dug in a 
bank, high enough for us to stand in erect, was stoned up 
in front, and it had in it a fire-place. In that place we 
made ourselves quite comfortable. A Mr. Walker was 
our landlord, and furthermore he seemed to be the land- 
lord of the country round ; but in spite of his remon- 



254 WESTERN WILD ANIMALS. 

strances against our hunting or trapping anywhere about 
him, we did carry off some valuable skins. I was again 
caught out in a terrible storm, and then became acquain- 
ted with a man who, having once been out in the midst 
of a white storm, had frozen his feet so badly that they 
came off at the instep. He could not reach any surgeon ; 
he therefore had made a saw of some pieces of steel that 
he found in his house, and with it sawed off the bones in 
his own feet. His recovery was the reward he received 
for his courage. 

We had very good success in trapping, and when after 
a few weeks we returned homewards, we started down the 
Cottonwood in two light boats, which we had with us. 
The stream is crooked and in many places very rapid, 
two conditions that, in conjunction with our style of craft, 
greatly enhanced the pleasure of a rough out-of-doors 
experience. We traveled by day down the river, and at 
night would pitch our tent in the most convenient place 
that we could find near by. After rowing our way 
through the Cottonwood, along the Minnesota river, and 
into the Mississippi, we reached Prarie du Chien, from 
which place we went to our homes by rail, having had no 
serious trouble with our light boats, except when going 
through Lake Pepin. We were in Minnesota at the time 
of an Indian insurrection, and saw many evidences of 
their vengeful wrath. 

AN ENCOUNTER WITH AN EAGLE. 

Early in the winter of '74-5, while hunting on the 
Yellow river about thirty-five miles from Chippewa, Wis., 
Mr. Van Antwerpt, who was then hunting with me, went 
out one day to get a deer that we had previously killed. 
We had hung the deer on a tree for safe keeping. He 
took it down, but had gone not more than forty rods from 



HUNTING TRIPS. 255 

the tree, when an eagle, coming up from behind him, flew 
just over his head, and on, about twelve feet in front of him, 
then turned about and planted itself upon the ground in a 
decidedly combative attitude. It stood upon one foot, 
the other was uplifted as if ready for a fight ; its head 
was erect, its sharp eyes as sharply fixed upon the man 
who was carrying off the deer, upon which it was probably 
about to feed ; the feathers were all turned forwards, and 
*' stood on end," and the wings were partially spread. 
The man threw down the deer, picked up a stick and 
throwing it at the eagle he struck the angry bird, but 
broke the stick. The eagle retreated about six feet, then 
turned about and faced him again, assuming the same 
fighting posture as before. The man picked up another 
stick and this time started for the bird, which at the same 
time advanced to meet him, and when each stood still they 
were within four feet of each other. He so wounded it 
that it could not fly, then taking another stick he started 
again for the bird, which was now walking off as best it 
could. Soon it turned upon him with an evident desire 
to fight it out as it had commenced ; but the man soon 
killed it. It was a golden eagle, and measured two feet 
and ten inches from the bill to the tip of the tail, and 
seven and a half feet across the wings. It is now in a 
college cabinet, a fine specimen of its sort, and as an indi- 
vidual bird the reminder of a singular freak of our " his- 
toric bird." 



256 WESTERN WILD ANIMALS. 



VIII. 
A TRIP TO LAKE SUPERIOR. 



BY E. S. BAILEY. 

{Written Augiist, 1870.) 

A few summers ago, through the kindness of President 
Whitford, the president of one of our Western colleges, I 
was invited to accompany him upon a geological and 
pleasure trip to Lake Superior. There were two others 
in our party, a school-mate, and last, but by no means 
least in importance in a trip of this kind, was our friend 
David Cartwright, a hunter and trapper, with whom the 
readers of these pages have already become somewhat 
acquainted. 

We all desired to see some of the mines and mining 
towns of this famous iron and copper region. We all 
desired to experience the realities of camp life, to get 
outside of fences, and inside of the woods, where the 
bears and the bugbears might possibly meet us on our 
way, and we in turn might try our rifles and traps upon 
them. But the party was to a certain extent divided 
against itself, the first two named of said company de- 
siring more specially to visit the mines, the other two 
preferring the depths above ground, to those beneath it. 
The details of this trip will not be fully recounted here, 
as we like best to talk to interested listeners, and our 
readers are supposed to be looking now, for a recital of 
the woodsman's sports, and not of the miner's home and 
daily toil. 



A TRIP TO LAKE SUPEBIOR. 257 

Being amply supplied with blankets, clothing, and what 
is necessary for " roughing it," not to mention here a good 

stock of provisions, we left our homes in M , to take 

the night train for Green Bay. We arrived at this place 
early in the morning, having had a quiet and safe jour- 
ney. A short time after our arrival, we got on board the 
side-wheel steamer Gov. Dunlap, bound for Escanaba. 
The steamer soon started. Our course now lay near the 
middle, and the entire length of the bay. It is one 
hundred and twenty miles from Green Bay to Escanaba. 
The first part of the journey was very fine and we enjoyed 
it much. In the morning the bay was smooth ; there was 
scarcely a ripple ; but by noon a breeze sprung up, and at 
three o'clock, when we first sighted the light-house (off 
Escanaba), the wind was blowing a gale. This feature of 
the bay was by no means the most enjoyable, to us land 
lubbers. The scenery along the bay was very fine. We 
arrived at Escanaba at about four o'clock in the after- 
noon. The town presents an appearance by no means 
flattering at first sight, and a stay of two or three hours 
did not better the impression. There were several fine 
houses and one or two good hotels ; but the yards were 
not fenced in, and even the pine stumps stood in the 
middle and on either side of the roads, and sidewalks : 
possibly they were left as an affecting reminder of some 
beloved pioneer of that immediate section of the coi#itry. 
The attractive feature of the place is its situation ; it is 
just on a point that makes out into the bay, and is pro- 
tected by high bluffs, which lie back of it. This place is 
always cool, because of its lake breeze. The iron-ore 
dock is the greatest curiosity there, but to describe it 
without a closer examination, I could not. 

At six o'clock of the same day, we got on board the 
passenger train and started for — some place, — we did 

17 



258 WESTERN WILD ANIMALS. 

not know where. As soon as we left Escanaba we began 
to enter dense forests. For miles and miles on both 
sides of the track, there was nothing but trees, trees, trees. 
The train stopped at several stations, and took on passen- 
gers. These stations need but little comment ; a log hut 
built near the track, and under the protection of some 
forest trees, being the only station-like object upon which 
to base a comment. We had been told that if we would 
watch closely, when we were about three miles out from 
Escanaba, we could see a camp of Indians, We looked, 
with all our eyes ; but we did not see Mr. Lo, in his native 
laziness. 

After one or two stops at these dreary stations, I raised 
the enquiry as to where we were to get out. I was ans- 
wered that no one knew; but that we would find out 
before leaving the train. I thought at first this was in- 
tended for a joke, but afterwards learned that it was true. 

The conversation of some of the passengers, who had 
doubtless had a residence far back in the woods for many 
years, was amusing. A single remark will suffice here. 
A father and mother had been with a sick boy, to see a 
doctor, and the mother in answer to the enquiry, " What 
is the matter with your boy .^" said, "Why! bless you, 
mon, it 'pears as though his swallower is stopped up, and 
he can't drawer a bref." She said one of her boys had 
just ^ed, but she wouldn't care any more for him if this 
one would live. 

Just as the sun was setting, the train stopped and the 
baggage-m.aster commenced to tumble out our baggage 
upon the ground. By this I knew when and where to 
get out. Three shanties and a hand-car house composed 
this village, and it was named Shaketown. Through the 
kindness of the section boss we obtained permission to 
take up quarters in the rear end of the car-house. After 



A TRIP TO LAKE SUPERIOR. 259 

• 

moving into our humble dwelling, I took an inventory of 
stock, viz : two trunks, a box of provisions, two guns, an 
axe and a long-handled frying-pan. To get supper was 
the next part of the day's doings. Hot tea was procured 
from one of the neighbors, and this with the provisions 
we had, made us a nice supper, and after partaking of the 
bountiful repast, we soon retired, not to downy beds such 
as they are supposed to be, but to hard beds down on the 
floor. But we rested. The next morning's sun rose 
bright, and with it the whole party of pleasure-seekers. 
An hour was spent in looking about, before we com- 
menced to get our breaki"ast. Coffee was made in the 
four-quart pail, and the services of the frying-pan were 
brought into use in rendering some speckled trout, which 
the President had purchased, into a palatable condition. 
Having discussed the merits of our breakfast, we then 
discussed the propriety of officering the squad. President 

W was elected chaplain, captain, and commanding 

officer of the commissary department ; Mr. C, the trap- 
per, a builder of camps, and baggage-master; our friend 
Will R , a dish-washer, and myself a cook and com- 
pounder of drinks. 

Thus commissioned we started out about seven o'clock 
in the morning, to hunt deer, catch fish, or visit Smith's 
iron mines. By following a trail, we hoped to reach the 
latter place, in good shape in the course of two hours. 
To say nothing better for the plan, it embraced enough 
to keep us busy the two hours. Eighty rods out from the 
railroad track, we were out of all civilization, save such 
as we carried with us, in a dense, deep forest, wild as 
wildness itself. There was an indescribable grandeur in 
the feeling, that for once we were where none but the 
wild beasts roam. 

After being out some two or three hours, we scared two 



260 WESTERN WILD ANUIALS. 

9 

deer so fearfully that they left the bank of the lake, where 
they were feeding, and plunged off into the woods. We 
could have shot at them. Of course we could ; but hav- 
ing only a few over five hundred rounds of ammunition, 
we did not care to waste any, and yet to be honest with 
you, we would have given it all if we could have captured 
the deer. A half mile further on we commenced fishing 
for trout. We waited long and patiently, but the fish, with 
more precaution than patience, waited longer. The fish 
did not take a bite that time ; neither did we get a bite 
at them. We were quite discouraged, and almost dis- 
heartened over such luck, for according to the stories told 
us, we expected to get several deer, and a barrel or so of 
trout. No such luck was for us, so we started out to find 
the iron mines, feeling sure that, at least, these would not 
run away from us. We traveled until nearly two o'clock, 
and did not see a sign of the mines. 

The fever for killing some game, so overcame Mr. C, 
that he left us to find the mines, and he was sure he 
would find the game. We lay down on the moss, under 
some stately pines and slept an hour away. A tramp of 
another hour brought us out at the head of the beautiful 
lake, which we afterwards heard called Blue Lake, a name 
significant of our feelings just then. 

Here we first found substantial proofs that we were 
lost; and here first experienced the delightful sensation 
that flashes over one who suddenly finds himself literally 
and really lost. Tired ! hungry ! and lost ! O most 
pleasurable topics for thought, to us who had little hope of 
rest, food or camp for the fast-coming night. But nothing- 
would be gained by waiting at the head of the lake, so we 
started for the other end of it, where we chanced to see 
a saw-mill. Of all places mortals should take to walk in, 
this should be the last. I will not even except the laurel- 



A TRIP TO LAKE SUPERIOR. 261 

brakes of our own country. Words fail to express to the 
stranger of such a region, the actual condition of the 
sidewalks of this city of trees. The shore was covered 
with debris, collected for many centuries. Fires had run 
through the woods and burned the most of the timber, so 
that almost all the young timber was down, and was not 
very nicely corded, I assure you. After climbing over 
this stuff, a huge pine stump would loom up in front of 
us, and this we would have to climb over or around. 
Trees twisted by the tornadoes of past decades had so 
scattered their branches that we were obliged to walk upon 
them, because we could not walk on the ground. After 
climbing over, and crawling under these a mile or so, we 
came to a thicket so dense it would almost shed rain. 
After having pushed through this, we had to wade through 
several rods of marsh, and then to get upon the trunk of 
some gigantic pine and walk upon that. Even this would 
sometimes prove treacherous, and let us through. Several 
rods of tamarack swamp now awaited us, and after we had 
walked, waded and in all kinds of ways tried to get through 
all this, we came to a spot of ground that lay high and 
dry — not a stick of timber upon it — and the whole nearly 
a rod square. Here we halted and shot off our guns, to 
prevent accident. Seeing two small birds, we shot at 
them, thinking it might be all we should have to eat that 
night ; but both shots failed, and our supper vanished 
upon the wing. 

Very tired and lame with the labors of the day, we 
started on again, determined to push through or to fail 
in a glorious attempt. The solemnity of the passage 
through the swamp had not been broken by anything like 
laughter, for Will's declaration that this was no laughing 
matter, had toned us down, and had kept us suitably 
quiet. The crackling of underbrush startled us, for we 



262 WESTERN WILD ANIMALS. 

had not given up the idea of seeing bears, wolves, and 

other such creatures ; so W and I hastened onward to 

see what had happened to our commander — only to find 
that in jumping from one log to another, he had jumped 
beyond his length, and had landed in the mud and mire 
beneath him. At this we shouted in laughter. Why ? 
Because we could not help it, and because he was 
laughing too. But we kept close to him, after this, to 
rescue him in case of future danger. Not traveling 
very slow, and greatly desirous of going still faster, he 
made another jump upon a huge birch log. The bark 
yielded to the pressure, and he, assuming the position of 
a bat lighting on a June bug, soon mingled with the 
underbrush beneath the log. Again we started forward, 
and after a mile or more of the same kind of traveling we 
came to the saw-mill. We were three miles from Shake- 
town. We learned also, that on the north side of Blue 
Lake there was a well-traveled road, and the distance 
was shorter by two miles. We had gone through a jungle 
that Africa can scarcely rival. 

Three miles to camp ! This we soon walked, singing 
hymns and whistling tunes, somewhat after the manner of 
the Israelites, when delivered from the Red Sea. We 
found our hunter at camp, with supper ready, but minus 
his game. Enough to keep a student three weeks sud- 
denly disappeared. Next in order came the mending of 
torn clothes, bleeding hands and the repairing of the 
losses of the day. Alter our meager supper and limited 
exercises of the day, we laid us down to pleasant dreams. 

Two days afterwards, we left this camp and went on to 
Negaunee, a distance of twenty miles from Shaketown. 

Negaunee is situated at the junction of the Escanaba 
and the Marquette and Ontonagon railroads. It con- 
tains nearly twenty-five hundred inhabitants. They are 



A TRIP TO LAKE SUPERIOR. 268 

composed of all nationalities. The greater portion of 
them have gone there to make as much money as possi- 
ble in the least time possible. I think but few of them 
are rich. The business street is half a mile long and well 
built up on both sides. The buildings, however, are 
rudely built, and without regard to taste, or anything like 
architectural beauty or construction. On this street it is 
safe to say that every other store has connected with it a 
saloon. All the side streets were filled with saloons, and 
I believe that Negaunee has more saloons to the acre 
than any other place this side of the mining towns on the 
Pacific coast. It contains a single school with less than 
one hundred scholars. A machine shop and two blast 
furnaces are the chief manufacturing interests. The 
Jackson iron mine gives the principal life -to the place. 
This mine is one of the largest in the iron regions and is 
situated about a quarter of a mile from the depot, and is, 
I should judge, about a mile in length. 

While on our way to visit the Champion mines we 
passed through a place bearing an Indian name, which 
means in English, heaven. None of us had ever expected 
to pass through that place, (I mean Heaven) seated in a 
railroad car and have our neighbors playing "seven up " 
on the seat back of us ; but one's expectations are seldom 
exactly realized. 

We stayed a single night at Negaunee and there passed 
the night in camping out. We took our blankets and 
went into the woods, spread them and lay down to sleep. 
We were on a hill-side and I slept on the down-hill side, 
and when I awoke in the morning I found myself three 
or four feet from my chums. I think I've never slept 
better anywhere than I did that night. The sky served 
for the coverings, and the earth for the springs, while my 
boots served for a pillow. 



264 WESTERN WILD ANIMALS. 

We left Negaunee about one o'clock in the afternoon, 
and went on to Marquette, sixteen miles from the former 
place. The descent from Negaunee to Marquette is 
about seven hundred feet. 

Under the direction of Mr. Cartwright we made our 
camp about a mile dut of town, on the shore of the 
lake. Our tent was made of small pine trees. We com- 
menced its building by placing a pole from one tree to 
another, and then put our little trees so that the branches 
were turned downwards, thus enabling them to shed rain 
readily. Having cut a good many boughs for the floor 
of our tent, after spreading them out and placing our 
blankets upon them, we soon had a splendid tent. We 
had not finished it when there came up a hard shower ; 
but our tent .sheltered us, and we were as " snug as a bag 
in a rug." This camp, just for luck, was called Bailey's 
camp. After spending three days of earthly bliss at this 
camp, we went on to Houghton. Before leaving, however? 
let me give you a description of the place. 

Marquette is the largest of the towns in all the Lake 
Superior region. It received its name from the celebrated 
French missionary, Father Marquette. It is very pleas- 
antly and picturesquely situated on a beautiful bay, which 
travelers say bears a very marked resemblance to the Bay 
of Naples. The town is built upon the circling shore, 
which rises in natural bluffs, street above street. .V iew 
years ago it was nearly destroyed by fire ; it was in the 
winter, and during a severe gale. It was speedily 
rebuilt, and when I saw it presented a fine appearance. 
The bracing air at Marquette is its principal attraction 
for those seeking recreation. All the time we were there 
the weather was delightful, not too warm, as it was com- 
fortable for one to wear flannel, even though it was August. 
This place is becoming more and more frequented by 



A TRIP TO LAKE SUPERIOR. 265 

pleasure seekers. One of their rustic poets writes as 
follows about Marquette. (I copied it while there:) 

" The air is bracing, sweet and pure, 
Those who're sick can well endure 
To breathe it freely ; while they stay, 
A balm they'll find it every day. 
We've mossy hills and shady dells. 
And rippling streams, where music swells, 
And pleasant sights the country 'round, 
As any in the realm are found ." 

The inhabitants and tourists pass a considerable por- 
tion of their time fishing and boating. There are few 
good drives, except along the shore. vSome days travelers 
have splendid luck at fishing ; but they happened to be 
out of town, and couldn't tell us how it was done. We 
were always out on unlucky days, only once, when one 
of the party caught a trout that weighed nine pounds. 

To perfect this place for a summer resort would require 
only good bathing facilities. The water changes only six 
degrees during the entire year. It is rather cool for 
bathing, yet we could not resist the temptation to plunge 
into the pure, clear waters of that great lake. The water 
is so pure that, when calm, objects can be seen at a depth 
of seventy-five feet. There are no shells to be found on 
the shores of Lake Superior. 

The local scenes are very fine, and some are very curi- 
ous. As active business-like men are seen in its streets 
as in any other place. 

Indians, with their squaws and papooses, are ever to 
be seen lounging around, or selling some of their trijikets. 
The windows in the business part of town are full of 
curious specimens of iron and copper ore, deer's heads 
with large antlers. "Wild cats and panthers nicely stuffed 
are used as signs, and all sorts of Indian curiosities, from 
a full sized birch bark canoe to a very small pair of 



266 WESTERN WILD ANIMALS. 

moccasins. The iron money, not coined, but in the form 
of bank bills and issued by the iron companies, made 
payable by their agents in Detroit or Cleveland, is com- 
mon here. It is hard looking money. The first time I 
got any I thought I had been swindled to the amount of 
the bill. 

Another curiosity is the construction of the wharves 
for the loading of vessels with ore. It is very much like 
the one at Escanaba, and, as I visited this one, a single 
description will answer for both. I should judge they 
were thirty feet above the lake, and extend eight hundred 
or a thousand feet into it. Upon this a train of thirty or 
forty cars loaded with ore is run ; a trap door in the bot- 
tom of each car is opened, and the ore is conducted in 
sluices down to the side dock below, at which vessels lay. 
Thirty of these trains arrive daily with their loading of 
ore. 

About six o'clock Thursday afternoon we broke up 
Bailey's camp, and started with our luggage for the steam- 
boat wharf. At ten o'clock the City of Toledo left the 
wharf, bound for Houghton. It was a dark and stormy 
night, and we were glad enough to have the shelter of the 
steamer, for I think the romance of Bailey's camp would 
have been washed away by the drenching rain. 

An Indian half-breed made sport for us an hour or so 
by giving us exhibitions of clog dancing, and other ways 
of tripping the " light fantastic." After he had danced 
out, we turned in for the night. We were all up early in 
the morning to see the sights. The steamer was just 
leaving the lake, and was entering Portage Lake, and 
would be at her dock in an hour and a half. 

The sceneiy all along this lake is grand, and I cannot 
pass it by without a word. On either side of the lake, 
or rather the outlet of the lake, very high bluffs rise 



A TRIP TO LAKE SUPERIOR. 267 

gradually from the water's edge, and a full mile back 
reach their summits. They are covered with a great 
variety of trees, so scattered that one cannot help admir- 
ing them. Here and there barren rocks loom up in bold 
relief. The scene was constantly changing, but was still 
as fine in one place as another. 

This country was just as it was made by the Creator, 
undisturbed by man. We saw along the bank of the 
lake several Indian wigwams, or huts. They were rudely 
built, and only calculated for one season, and some 
for only a day. One camp I noticed in particular. It 
was made as follows : two stakes were stuck in the 
ground ; across them was placed a ridge pole, some four 
feet from the ground ; then two sticks were placed with 
one end on the ridge pole, and the other on the ground. 
These poles were then covered with birch bark. Under 
this rude covering there were eight Indians. There were 
two large birch bark canoes drawn up on the shore. My 
love for the Indian race was not at all increased by seeing 
this poor, lazy set of fellows. They were rudely clad, 
and eked out a miserable existence by hunting and fishing. 

About seven o'clock we stopped at the wharf at Hough- 
ton. The place was named after Dr. Douglas Houghton, 
one of the very earliest settlers in the northern regions. 
He was afterwards drowned in Portage Lake. 

As we could not find a good place to camp, we secured 
a house with ten rooms, a store front and a large wood 
shed. We thought this would accommodate us for room. 
We very soon made the acquaintance of the people in 
the adjoining house, and from them received many favors 
during our stay. 

Across the river, but a little higher up the stream, is a 
little place called Handcock. It is about the size of 
Houghton, and about as dead ; but this place has the 



268 WESTERN WILD ANIMALS. 

stamps, the ponderous iron stamps, I mean, which are 
used in crushing the ore to secure the copper. We all 
crossed on the ferry, intending to see the sights about 
the mines and stamps there, but we were told that the 
best mines to visit were thirteen miles north. President 
W. and myself determined to go on to see them. Mr. C. 
and Will were to look at the sights in the immediate 
vicinity of Houghton and Handcock. We hired a horse 
and buggy and rode over hills and mountains, and through 
some timber, where the trees were so tall that we had to 
look twice to see the tops of them. 

Our visit to the Hecla and Calumet mines was suf- 
ficiently interesting to us to make us forget our dinner. 
We afterwards visited the Quincy mines and some others, 
and all of the visits resulted in united pleasure and profit. 

On returning to Marquette with the rest of the party 
we learned that there was to be an excursion to the 
pictured rocks. The President and myself went with 
the excursionists on board the "City of Toledo," which 
was to take us out that day. No pleasure seekers could 
be better pleased with the sights of a single day than 
were we on that trip. Our friend Mr. C. and his faithful 
companion did not see the pictured rocks, for there was 
pictured so unmistakably and indelibly upon their minds 
a hunter's return to camp, laden with choice booty, that 
they could not be persuaded to spoil the scene by leaving 
themselves out of the picture. If you ask if the picture is 
in the possession of any of the party, and if framed or 
otherwise on exhibition to inquiring friends ; and if the 
deer, bears, wolves, and the trout are all there at the feet 
of our heroes, we have but to refer you to the reports of the 
old and the young hunter, as they gave them to us on 
our return to Shaketown, whither they had gone ; or we 
will leave you with them to hear for yourselves what they 



A TRIP TO LAKE SUPERIOR. 269 

have to say of the events of the day, and will only ask 
that when you have learned what you can of them, you 
shall sometime tell us whether theirs was the better choice. 
Do you leave it to us to tell you, we may say that after 
they came on board the train at Shaketown, and we found 
ourselves homeward-bound, we interested them for a 
while with accounts of the beautiful scenery which the 
famous rocks had furnished us that day, and of which 
you already know, or may with little effort learn. In 
return they told us how near Mr, C. had come to killing 
a deer ; what fun the inhabitants of Shaketown had in 
killing a skunk, and the " Pick him up on a shovel, Mike,"^ 
"Catch him by the tail, Johnnie." They told us how 
Will had been frightened within an inch of his life by a 
wolf, as he was coming into camp at night ; how it was 
that Mr. C. was close by and there wasn't any wolf 
there. 

The pro\»ision box they filled with whortleberries, 
twenty-four quarts, which they had picked in about three 
hours. 

Our trip down the bay was without excitement. We 
took the same boat as on the upward trip. At Green 
Bay we looked about some. It is one of the oldest towns 
in the Northwest, having been settled about two hundred 
years. The appearance of the place also justifies one in 
thi^> bit of history. A few hours by rail found us in our 
homes. I count the trip a profitable one, and think it 
did as much for us, as the adage of early rising promises 
to do for one. Our out-door life had given us increased 
health ; our sight-seeing had made us wiser, and they 
both had given us a measure of that wealth that falls to a 
sound body, and an appreciative, happy heart. 

This is the short story of a long trij3. During this 
trip Mr. Cartwright became to us "Uncle David." By 



270 WBSTEBJV WILD ANIMALS. 

his observing the tops of certain trees we were always 
sure of the points of compass. By his careful and con- 
stant watchfulness he was ever pointing out to us the 
habits of the animals that we started up as we journeyed 
through the forests. The study of nature amounted to 
enthusiasm with him. He knew all about trees, brooks, 
and rocks. In the finding out of the secrets of the lesser 
animals, and by skill and cunning to arrange for their 
capture, was his delight. He carried his trusty rifle in 
one hand, a walking stick in the other, and with eyes 
bent on the ground he eyed every track and broken limb 
for some indications of approaching game. To see a 
place along a stream or by a lake where fur-bearing ani- 
mals had been was to set up a land-mark for a future 
visit during the trapping season. He was kind and tem- 
perate in everything except in long journeys. He has 
since become so familiar with Lake Superior woods as to 
offer himself as a guide for visiting parties, and has 
given us all invitations to hunt with him, but it has been 
impossible to accept them. Should any of our readers 
be fortunate enough to have his invitation for a trip in 
the woods, or for a stay of a week or two at his camp, it 
would be simply the prelude to a pleasant trial of camp 
life and the furnishing of good things to be remembered 
in after days. 



TBAPPINO—LAKE SUPERIOR REGIONS. 271 



IX. 
TRAPPING IN THE LAKE SUPERIOR REGIONS. 



Mr. C. P. Clemens and myself commenced hunting in 
the Lake Superior regions in the fall of 1870. Mr. Clem- 
ens, whom we all called '' Uncle," is a genial, good 
natured, happy old soul, who likes to be happy, and to 
see others so, even if he is obliged to confer the happiness 
himself. He is, therefore, both rich and benevolent, pos- 
sessing and willing to impart, what so few possess, or 
know how to bestow upon others. He is a man of excel- 
lent principles, is strictly temperate, and never swears ; 
nor does he use vile, indecent language, as some people 
suppose he must do, if he is a hunter. There is no occu- 
pation that obliges a man to swear, or that makes it 
necessary for him to become a drinker. It is a matter of 
grief to those of us who would follow the woodsman's 
craft, that we are set down as roughs, as profane, intem- 
perate men, and yet we know that such opinions are born 
either of ignorance of the craft itself, or based upon the 
shiftlessness of those who follow the business in their own 
naturally shiftless ways. Uncle Clemens is a practical 
woodsman, but one whom we know can enjoy to an 
enviable extent a social gathering within doors as well as 
beyond the fences. Being an experienced hunter, I found 
him a good partner, and remember with pleasure those 
seasons in which I have traveled with my "uncle." 

The country through the northern section of our trap- 
ping ground was specially dreary. North and west from 



373 WESTERN WILD ANIMALS. 

Shaketown the land was covered for miles and miles with 
burnt timber. Upon the high grounds south of this 
burnt district we found maple, birch, and hemlock trees. 
Upon the low lands, over which we traveled the most, 
there were cedar, spruce and tamarack swamps. 

Our line of traps was so set that it required a march 
of a hundred miles to reach them all. We had nine 
camps upon the line. One of them, which was a logging 
camp, was our home run, and was about nine miles from 
Shaketown. There we kept our supplies and met in 
council, we two " good Indians " of the woodsman's tribe. 
We each trapped and camped alone the most of the time. 
My own camp was twenty miles from the home camp. 
Whenever we left one we would leave in writing upon the 
wall a statement of our successes and our plans until such 
times as we should arrange to meet again. We caught 
seventy-three beavers, fourteen otters, sixty-seven mink, 
ten martens, eight fishers, six lynx, four foxes and two 
hundred muskrats. 

In the spring Paul Cartwright, my son, was with us. 
One day on reaching the home camp, when Paul's camp 
was fifteen miles west of it, and my own twenty miles 
southwest, I found that he was intending to come to my 
camp on a certain day, if it did not rain. But it rained. 
I waited several days, and as he did not come I went to 
the home camp and there learned that his plan was to 
start the day before. He should have reached me at 
night. I retraced my steps ; but not being able to get 
through, and there being two camps between that one 
and mine, I stayed all night at the first camp. I there 
expected to meet Uncle Clemens, but did not. In the 
morning I went on to the second camp and there found 
the dog that Paul always kept with him, and one that 
could hardly be induced to leave him. He was alone, in 



TRAPPING IN THE L. 8. REGIONS 273 

a very sorry condition ; he looked sad and forsaken ; his 
head was shot full of hedge-hog quills, and he looted as 
though he had had nothing to eat for several days. This 
so alarmed me that I started at once for my own camp to 
find my son, knowing that if I did not find him there, or 
possibly somewhere on my road, I should have scarcely 
any hope of finding him. As I started from the camp I 
had a pack of seventy pounds upon my back. I had five 
miles to go over a rough road, or more literally, over our 
trail. As I went along, I shouted frequently, thinkmg I 
might possibly get a response, and reached the camp in 
an hour and a quarter. There I found my son. I had 
not thought of my pack until I saw him, when my nerves 
and my muscles so soon relaxed that I was unable to take 
another step without help. 

After I had been home and sold my furs I went irito 
the woods again, and commenced trouting. We sold nine 
hundred pounds, for which we received forty cents a 
pound. As soon as deer were in good condition we 
hunted them again and caught sixty-seven, for which we 
got from ten to twelve and a half cents per pound. 

During that summer as I went one day to salt a deer 
lick, which was twelve miles from Shaketown, and as I 
was crossing a swamp on a corduroy bridge, I looked 
into the swamp and saw a bear coming onto the road. I 
shot him and he ran towards me, growling at every step. 
I set my dog upon him, but as they met, each one turned 
to the right and they passed each other. 'Twas rather 
ceremonious for the circumstances, however, for no sooner 
had the dog passed him than he wheeled about and 
pouncing upon the bear, clinched him. The bear tried 
to catch the dog, but the dog escaped and the bear made 
another lunge towards me. The dog caught him a second 
time, and he fell and died. I found that I had shot him 

18* 



S74 WESTERN WILD ANIMALS. 

through the heart. The bear probably had no idea of 
touching me. I think he did not see me ; but he hap- 
pened to run towards me, and I think because the road 
was better than in the opposite direction, 

I returned to my home in the fall and remained until 
spring, when Uncle Clemens and I hunted together again 
upon our old hunting ground. During the summer and 
fall we caught ninety-seven deer, eight bears, about thirty- 
five beavers and as many mink. The mink skins were 
that fall unusually handsome. We sold six hundred 
pounds of speckled trout, and I made several trips with 
fishing parties. Paul Cartwright was with us five weeks 
during the time. Besides our deer skins, we sold nine 
hundred and seventy-six dollars worth of other stuff. 
We were out from June to January. 

Early in July of the same season Willis P. Clarke, and 
Postmaster Paul Green of Milton went up to our trap- 
ping and hunting grounds to test the experiences of life 
in the wild woods. Very early in the morning of the 
first day after their arrival Paul Green went out with me 
to catch, if possible, some deer. I soon shot one and 
putting it upon my back we started for camp ; but before 
we had retraced many of our steps he killed one and we 
went back into camp before breakfast with our two deer, 
and all counted it a successful trip for our sportsman. 
Our friend Paul afterwards killed four others, and our 
friend Willis also killed his first deer while there. 

" Uncle Clemens " and myself afterwards went out 
from our shanty, accompanied by the two sportsmen just 
mentioned, to an old lumberman's camp about four 
miles from the mine. We arrived there about noon, and 
after dinner Clemens went down the Escanaba river to 
the " Cataract " for trout. Paul and Willis went with me 
to a deer lick, when on arriving we found that a bear had 



TRAPPING IN THE L, 8. MEGI0N8. 275 

been poaching there. Leaving them to watch for the 
bear, which I believed would return before night, I went 
on to watch another lick. Their post was upon a granite 
ridge overlooking a muddy slough. About four o'clock, 
on looking to the north, the men sav/ their ursine friend 
approaching them. He came steadily on, crossed the 
slough on the fallen timber, and came directly in front of 
them. Although it was the first time either of them had 
seen a bear in his native wilds they took steady aim, and 
at the word both fired. The former put a ball through 
his back and the latter a charge of buck shot into his 
lilody. This unexpected reception rather disconcerted 
his bearship, and before he could recover his presence of 
mind another ball from Paul's rifle laid him out. He was 
a black bear, and in good condition Avould have weighed 
four hundred pounds. I returned to them just at night, 
having killed while gone two bucks. We then returned 
to camp and feasted on venison and broiled trout. When 
they returned to their homes they carried with them good 
cheer, and a high appreciation of the pleasures of such a 
trip. 

During the following summer, or the summer of 1873, 
I went out with two sporting parties. The first party 
ronsisted of wSmith, Baggs, Millard, and Stephens. The 
last one named came from Smith's mines. He is a man 
who is prompt in his habits and quick in his motions. 
He is well educated, and having traveled extensively, is 
trained in that knowledge that comes of a practical study 
of various peoples and their varied homes. The others 
came from Chicago. Baggs and Smith were in office 
employ of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad. 
Millard was a clerk in a book-store. 

As I knew them, Smith reminded me of Uncle Clemens 
in his kind and genial disposition, and true to the dispo- 



276 WESTERN WILD ANIMALS. 

sition which he represented, he was capital good com- 
pany. Baggs was the joker, and kept us all in time and 
tune. Millard was the most persistent fisher I have ever 
known. Sometimes when he displayed his excessive per- 
sistency in quietly holding his fish pole, and when the 
water was clear and the sun was shining bright and we 
could see through it for a radius of several rods and there 
was not a fish to be seen, he evoked the time-worn adu- 
lation, and incentive to noble deeds, " Perseverance con- 
quers all things," or sometimes when mirth got the 
uppermost of our sobriety in contemplation of the stern 
realities of actual business life, the great demands it 
makes upon our time and patience, some one was always 
ready to pat him on the shoulders and sing in his ear, " If 
at first you don't succeed, try, try again." 

We went onto the Escanaba river and camped two 
nights a few miles above Smith's mines. When we were 
returning to our camp, which was a few rods from the 
mines. Smith in his jollity, jumped about a little too much 
for a man in a row-boat, and when he found the boat 
rocking too much he thought to sit down on the edge of 
the boat and behave himself, as I suppose ; but he found 
himself landed in the water, and for a time he did behave 
himself like a man, but a sick one, I mean ; for he took 
cold and was sick. 

On our return to the mines the men wanted to go out 
to catch some deer. Paul and Jonathan Cartwright went 
with Baggs and Millard, and I went with Smith. I cau- 
tioned the boys not to get excited if they should see some 
deer, and told them when and how to shoot. They were 
capital boys to mind ; they did keep cool, so cool and so . 
unexcited that when a deer came within fire of them they 
did not offer to shoot it, or even to frighten the poor thing. 
I've never heard that they made much money on the sale 



TRAPPING IN THE L. 8. REGIONS. 277 

of venison from that day's hunting. I took Smith to a 
deer lick, and left him to \vatch it while I went on to 
another one. On nearing it I shot a very largje buck. It 
ran off. When Smith came into camp he said that I had 
killed a deer. I doubted it ; for, as I told him, I had 
found a drop of blood on a leaf which was so high that 
if it had dropped from the wounded deer, as I knew that 
it did, it was shot so high on the body as not to kill it 
very soon. I had, therefore, not attempted to find it ; 
but in the morning I did find it dead. 

We went to Escanaba by the river. Our ride on the 
ri'/er look us sixty or seventy miles through a country in 
its native wildn ess. There was not a house to be seen 
along the river ; heavy timber comes close to the banks. 
In many places the stream is very rapid, and there are 
occasionnlly perpendicular falls of water of six or eight 
feet. In many ol the places through the rapids it is un- 
safe for boating ; for there are large rocks on the river 
bed. When we could see our \,ay out of these places, 
the men would begin to shorten their faces, and to wake 
the woods with their shouts. They had gone for fun, and 
for a thorough relaxation from the close confinement of 
business. 

W^e had a first rate time fishing. We were six days 
going down the river. One night, just after sundown, we 
saw a deer crossing the river and coming toward us. 
Baggs and Smilh both shot at it ; but the deer made good 
its escape. 

Stephens and myself stayed one night at Escanaba, 
then returned by rail, in company with a,nother party 
which I had met there by agreement. This company 
was also from Chicago. Three of them, Howlan, Evans 
and Alexander, were conductors on the Chicago, Burling- 
ton and Quincy Railroad. Nichols was a news agent. 



278 WESTERN WILD ANIMALS. 

We went to Smith's mines, and stayed one night in our 
tent, about forty rods from the entrance to the mine, and 
the next day we went to the camping ground of the first 
party, above the mines. There we divided into two com- 
panies and spent the day in trouting. Three of the men 
went up to the cataract, and were not specially successful 
in catching fish. Two of the men went with me onto the 
Little North, a branch of the river. It is a small stream, 
but rapid. The timber is very thick along this stream, 
and a great deal has been blown down and into the water, 
making it doubly difficult to travel upon it. The scenery 
is very w^ld, and to many it might seem dreary. My 
Chicago friends thought they had never seen a wilder 
country than when upon that trip. We caught about one 
hundred and fifty trout, and returning to camp met our 
other friends. 

The day following this they also proposed to have a 
change on the programme ; so we started out to catch 
some deer. I went off and shot a very large deer. I 
took the saddles, which weighed seventy pounds, and re- 
turned to camp. .f\s I neared the camp Alexander came 
to carry my load for me. He was like the little girl who 
thought " That's a good many for three;" seventy pounds 
weighed more than he thought it did. The next morning 
he helped me carry the remainder of it to camp. The 
head and horns he appropriated as trophies of his chase. 

Our return trip to Escanaba was also down the river 
by boat. We had two boats, and as we neared the rapids 
it was fun for the men to watch each other's boats. I 
always stood when managing a boat, and I could not keep 
my equilibrium as we bumped over the stony bottom. 
Once, to the amusement of the men, I was thrown for- 
wards, and lay across some of the men, with my hands 
and my head in the water. Another time I was thrown 



TRAPPING IN TEE L. S. REGIONS. 279 

entirely out. Whenever anything of this kind Avould 
happen, our railroad conductors would call out, " All 
aboard !" Howlan and xA.lexander were large, two hun- 
dred pounders, and they made the woods ring with their 
invitations to a free ride and no accidents on this line. 
Whatever made fun for one party called the attention of 
the other, and no sooner would their eyes be off from 
their own course than they would bump against a rock, 
and the tables were turned ; the laughers became the 
laughees. Frequently when a boat would be brought up 
against a rock, some of the men would get out, (the water 
was very shallow,) and pulling a rope at the bow of the 
boat, would pull it over They were very kind to me. 
These two parties from Chicago were the only ones I've, 
ever had offer to do such things for me. I thank them 
for their kindness ; for the pleasure they furnished me I 
hold them in kind regard. 

A little above Flat Rock we camped for our last night. 
There we found large piles of flood-wood, pine and cedar. 
The boys, for such you know we frequently call men, had 
a big bon-fire. I think 'twas large ; for I presume they 
frequently had eight or ten cords of wood burning at 
once. Around this fire the boys went in for fun, and 
nothing but fun. Evans we called " Big Indian Me.'* 
During the war he was on the frontiers, and had seen a 
great many Indians in their own country. He had 
learned their war dances, and other of their performances, 
and he filled the tree tops with his war whoops, and the 
yells of the scalp dance. We had scalped no Indians ; 
but we had, if you please, scalped other creatures in their . 
native wilds, and we had the fire and the dance about it, 
in good imitation of the red man's wild exultation, " Me 
killed Cheyenne! me killed Cheyenne!" 

I had been out with portions of both of these compa- 



280 WESTERN WILD ANIMALS. 

nies the previous year, and T remember the two seasons 
with pleasure. The returns of our bulleting campaign 
for the season in the electorial district above described, 
were eight bear skins, eighty beavers, seven otters, three 
fishers, thirty-five mink, over eighty deer, besides other 
cheaper furs. We also caught about six hundred pounds 
of trout. 

During the summer of 1874 I again went out with 
pleasure seekers. The pleasures of the trip, fortunes and 
misfortunes, bear a marked resemblance to those of the 
previous season ; but one of the men, Mr. Davis Rogers, 
either because of my own dexterity in deer stalking, or 
his want of it, resulting from inexperience, was sadly 
overcome with an idea he had of the difference between 
a professional deer-catcher and a green horn hunter. 



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